Chapter 49
Forty-Nine
SENAN
“Rhainn!” My shout echoes off the empty hall walls and windows. Dammit, where is my infernal brother? “Rhainn?”
“He went that way, sire.” Bell points down the hallway toward the study. Surely he wouldn’t go straight to the king. And yet, the solar and the dining room are in the opposite direction.
I run as fast as my legs will carry me, catching up to Rhainn right when his fist lifts to knock. “Stop!” I bellow. All the exertion ignites a fire in my lungs, and I begin to wheeze and cough. There is no hiding the blood that spills from my mouth as I drag my sleeve across my lips and try to catch my breath.
Rhainn whirls, his face a mask of fury, flushed all over, and eyes narrowed into slits. “How could you do this to her? Don’t you know how fucking lucky you are? She loves you, and yet you’re off rutting with our brother’s whore?—”
I lunge, catching him by the collar, stilling the insults on his tongue. “Speak ill of her again, and you will regret it. She is everything.” My beginning and my end. My one and only. My all. “I have loved her for years. Fate stole her from me, but now she has returned, and I will not let her go.” If anyone understands being hopelessly in love with someone, it’s Rhainn.
When I let him go, my brother’s eyes expand, his gaze dropping to the edge of the scripted letters peeking from beneath my unbuttoned shirt. “Allette?”
Nodding, I cover the most precious word inked across my heart. “All this time, she has been stuck in the human realm. And now that she has returned, I am in an impossible situation.”
I’m to marry the princess in thirteen days, and I’ve given Boris my word. I cannot so much as set foot outside this castle without at least one guard trailing behind. Yet I promised Allette I would leave with her. And the antidote…
Rhainn folds his arms across his chest, giving me a stern look. “I’ll keep your secret on one condition. I want to marry your princess.”
I snort. I can’t help it. Sure, he has made his affection for the princess clear on multiple occasions, but being attracted to someone isn’t the same as tying yourself to that person for all of eternity. “Boris will never allow it.” I’ve already tried that avenue and been shot down hard.
“He will if she wants to marry me too.”
If the princess chose to wed Rhainn, then Boris couldn’t do a damn thing about it, could he? The king will still have his alliance, and I’ll be free.
If I can find a way to escape the castle. Which brings me to yet another hurdle. Where will we go?
Allette has proven that we aren’t safe in the human realm. Clearly, we cannot stay in Kumulus, and I’m not familiar with any of the other kingdoms. Stratiss could work, but only if Aeron stops being an asshole and agrees to give us refuge.
I glance sidelong at Rhainn. “So you mean to seduce my betrothed?”
“That isn’t what I… Gods, Senan, I would never… What I meant was…”
I clap him on the shoulder. “It was a joke. Seduce away, little brother. You will hear no objection from me.”
He rubs his hands down his thighs, straightening his trousers, and says, “I won’t let you down.”
Rhainn occupying the princess leaves me free to plot our daring escape. Since Allette still has access to the servants’ wards, I’ll need her to return to the caverns to retrieve Jeston. Hopefully, he’ll have no qualms about sending the antidote to Aeron at the castle in Stratiss. Now to find my brother and speak to him about helping us get the hell out of here.
Or at least, that was the plan before Leeri storms down the hall, rage blazing in her narrowed eyes. “Where the hell have you been?”
I take a step back, putting distance between me and the irate woman charging like a fucking bull. “I was speaking with Rhainn.”
“I bet you were,” she sneers as her gaze drags down my disheveled state.
“Did you need something, or…?”
“I love you,” she says like it’s a curse, no warmth or affection in her tone.
I almost laugh but don’t because she looks as if she wants to slap me. “You don’t love me.”
“I do,” she insists, bunching her skirts in white-knuckled fists. “And since we are to wed in less than a fortnight, I see no reason why we should wait to consummate our relationship.”
She did not just suggest consummating our relationship in the middle of the fucking hall. I glance over her shoulder to find the guard stationed at the end of the corridor with eyes wide as saucers.
“We are not going to”— Gods, I cannot believe I’m about to say this out loud— “consummate our relationship, Leeri.”
Her delicately arched eyebrows come together. “Why not? Your king thinks it is a fantastic idea.”
“You spoke of consummating our relationship with the king before discussing it with me?”
“If you would have returned to the dining room as I requested, then I would have spoken to you.”
I take Leeri’s hand, bringing her out onto the balcony, where the full moon paints the gleaming marble a rich silver, coming to a stop well out of earshot of the guard. There are more hanging around, circling the tower on patrol, but I’m fairly confident none of them will hear what I have to say next. “I do not want to marry you.”
She doesn’t so much as flinch. If anything, her lips seem to tilt up at the corners. “We don’t always get what we want, do we?”
Hearing my own words thrown back at me is like a slap to the face.
“Would you not consider a marriage with my brother Rhainn instead?”
The lines on her brow deepen as her small smile morphs into a frown.
“I believe you and Rhainn would be very well suited. If you opened your heart to the idea, the two of you might even find happiness together.”
Her frown remains, and for a moment, it appears as if she seriously considers the idea. But then she shakes her head and opens her mouth, ruining all hope of this being simple. “How could I marry your brother when I love you?”
For far too long, I have danced around the truth. I really ought to maintain the lie until Rhainn can intercede, but desperation makes us do stupid things. “My heart has already been spoken for. If we wed, I would be doing so out of duty and nothing more.”
Despite her gasp and gawking look of horror, I continue on, needing her to understand the reality of our situation. “I do not love you, Leeri. I never have and never will. If I ever sleep with you”— kill me now —“I would be imagining someone else’s face, someone else’s eyes, someone else’s body. I would give you none of what you deserve. I am begging you, please, choose someone else as your husband. I cannot give you what you need.”
“No.” Her dark locks fall across her chest as she shakes her head. “That isn’t true. You’re just being stubborn. Boris warned me of this. He said that I may have to work for your affections.” She lunges, catching the back of my neck and dragging me closer.
I’m caught off guard but manage to twist my head so that her lips land on my cheek.
“Kiss me.” Her long nails bite into my neck as she struggles to press her mouth to mine. “You did before.”
Only because I believed Allette was gone forever. Now that I know she is alive, I will not betray her. I catch Leeri’s wrists, prying myself free of the princess’s possessive hold.
She jerks out of my grasp to stomp around in a huff, her dark violet hair falling forward, shielding half of her face in shadows. “Why must you be so bloody obstinate?” Leeri’s palms slam against my chest, sending me back a step. “It is your duty to marry me. Your king demands it.”
My duty is to Allette alone. My king can take his demands and choke on them. Leeri shoves me again, harder, and the backs of my legs collide with the balustrade.
When she tries to catch my collar, I manage to dodge her outstretched hands. Leeri’s knees knock against the balustrade; the force sends her falling forward. Her arms flail as she topples right over the edge. A scream wrenches from her throat, piercing the purple twilight sky. By some miracle, she manages to catch the marble ledge.
I drop my glamour, ready to fly to her rescue until I remember that the princess can save herself.
Except, from the terrified look on her face as her feet dangle helplessly below her, she certainly doesn’t look able to save anything.
I fly behind her, just out of reach, folding my arms over my chest as I watch her struggle.
She swings her body toward me, trying to hook my leg with hers. “Help me, dammit!”
“Help yourself.”
“I…I can’t. My magic is depleted. I can’t conjure my wings.”
She has spent more time in the sun this past week than me, and I still have plenty of magic. There must be something else going on here. When I run my fingers down her spine, she tries to grab me, but I pull back in time.
I find nothing.
No telltale bump.
No shiver.
Not a fucking thing.
Come to think of it, have I ever seen her fly? She rode into Kumulus on a Pegasus. The times I visited her in Nimbiss, we were always inside the castle. She insists on taking the stairs everywhere she goes. I’ve seen her with wings, though. Has she ever glamoured or recalled them in my presence? Could it be… “You don’t have any wings.”
“I do!” Her feet kick, but there is only air beneath her slippers. “They’re just…they’re glamoured.”
Liar . If she doesn’t have any wings, that means, “You’re Tuath, aren’t you?” A Tuath princess hiding in plain sight. Finally, after all this time, fate has smiled upon me. Boris would never uphold an alliance with Nimbiss if he knew their princess wasn’t Scathian.
Leeri swings herself in a pitiful attempt to hook her foot around one of the balustrades. “I’m not Tuath,” she screeches. “My parents are both Scathian, I swear it.”
“If you’re Scathian, then where are your wings?”
One by one, her fingers come unlatched. Her eyes bulge when she realizes there is nowhere to go but down.
“I can do this all night, Leeri.” I nod toward her white knuckles and fingers that must be cramping by now. “But the same cannot be said for you. Tell me the truth, and I will help you.”
Her forehead presses against the marble; tears glisten on her pale cheeks. After a few unladylike curses, she finally breaks down. “I-it’s true. I-I was born without w-wings,” she gasps through a broken sob.
Yes. Yes. Yes. “And your element?”
Her right hand slips, leaving her dangling by the left. I should probably feel bad about torturing her, but she brought this upon herself. If she’d been honest with me from the beginning, maybe we could’ve found a way out of this together.
Leeri tries to catch the ledge once more, but her arm must be too weak. “I-I wield none,” she cries.
Her hold finally gives way. A terrified shriek rips from her throat as she plummets toward the clouds far below. I catch her easily enough and bring her trembling form back to the balcony, keeping a hand on her elbow until she stops shaking and can stand upright on her own.
Thank the fates or the stars or the gods—whoever is looking out for me tonight. “I believe it’s time to discuss a new arrangement.”
Leeri’s gaze remains pinned to her slippers, her shoulders curled and vibrating. Gone is the confident woman who first arrived at this castle, replaced by a meek, demure ghost.
“I will not be marrying you,” I say, my tone as unyielding as the marble beneath our feet.
Her head snaps up, panicked eyes searching for a break in my resolve that doesn’t exist. “Please, Senan. You don’t understand. If I do not wed a Vale prince, my father will—” She bites her lip, cutting herself off.
I shouldn’t feel bad for her, and yet I do. Perhaps all of this love nonsense she spouted was her way of hiding her true feelings. Because what I see in her eyes right now isn’t love—it’s contempt.
I should know. I’ve looked at myself the very same way for the last four years.
If she needs to marry a Vale prince, then perhaps I can help her with that. “I was not lying when I said my younger brother holds some affection for you. However, in light of this new discovery, I don’t think it would be fair to expect him to uphold this alliance in my stead.”
Tears tumble down her cheeks, and a strangled sob wrenches from her chest as she seems to shrink even smaller.
“Unless…”
Her eyes lift to mine, filling with something akin to hope.
“Unless you tell Rhainn the truth.” I would love Allette no matter what she was—Scathian, Tuath, noble, servant, her position in society makes no difference to me. My soul and hers are bound together, destined to collide. Maybe my brother will feel the same about the princess.
“Rhainn deserves to know that you possess neither wings nor magic,” I say. “If you choose to keep your secret, then there will be no alliance. I will make sure of it.”
Leeri nods, using her sleeve to wipe her cheeks. “You won’t tell the king?”
I won’t be telling Boris a damn thing. “Not unless you choose to play false with my brother.”
I leave her there with a decision to make.
Her future may be uncertain, but mine has never been more clear—or more hopeful.
I cannot wait to tell Allette the glorious news: The wedding is off.