8. The Nightmare Prince
Chapter 8
The elven palace was filled with guests and royals from across the kingdoms, but familiar voices were drawing too close to my dressing chamber.
“Although, I’m thrilled you’ve finally sought me out first, I must ask if we’ve thought this through?”
I let out a long sigh as the door opened with a crash against the wall. My father filled the doorway, clad all in black as though this were an ordinary day. He had hold of the arm of King Ari, Mira’s father.
The two kings were vastly opposite.
Where Kase Eriksson was dark, Ari was bright. Daj did not speak much, and opted to be a silent, broody observer in most settings. Ari reveled in chatter and levity and busy words.
My father nudged Ari’s shoulder. “Just use that mouth of yours and speak some bleeding sense into him.”
I returned an exasperated look. “Really, Daj?”
My father said nothing, merely pointed a finger at me, a silent threat to comply and allow him to carry out his new scheme.
The door slammed behind him, leaving me alone with King Ari.
“Jonas.”
“Ari.”
The king adjusted a black circlet of raven wings over his golden hair. “How long do you think we must remain in here until he’s convinced I’ve endowed you with my immense wisdom? I need your father to believe I’ve done it, for he has never openly asked for my input, although we all know he craves it.”
I laced the front of my tunic and puffed a rogue strand of my dark hair off my brow. “I’m curious what made him seek you out. Are you the distraction while he arranges a kidnapping to steal me away?”
“I believe that might’ve been his first plan but your mother stopped him.”
Gods.
With a sigh, Ari came to my side. “He wishes me to speak to you, hoping I talk you out of this decision since I also took vows of convenience. He’s merely worried for you, and in his frenzy, has obviously overlooked a gaping flaw in his plan.”
“What’s that?”
“I am madly in love with my wife.” Ari clapped me on the shoulder. “Your father knows this, you know this.”
“I’ve grown up retching at the sight of you being odiously in love, Ari. This will not be the same.”
The king hesitated. “But it wasn’t always that way. We were tossed into a circumstance that forced us to be near each other. To learn of each other. To feel something more. You made this choice, and your intentions are good, but is that where it ends?”
“This isn’t about love, this is about peace. Don’t mistake me, I told the elven king I would see to it the princess is content, but this is larger than any one person. I don’t want another war, Ari.”
“I understand all that, I do. But the question remains: will you not try to make this something greater? Why can love not be part of it?”
To keep the princess content enough she did not wish to entertain the notion of Arion, was all I had planned beyond this day. I did not need to love her to do it.
In my silence, Ari gripped my shoulder. Like the other kings of the earth fae realms, Ari had been a second father to me and Sander. A man of jests and taunts, but in this moment he was wholly sincere.
“Happiness is all your mother and father want for you.” He gave my arm a slight shake. “That is all any of us want. If there is no hope that it may come from this decision, don’t tell him, but I am keen to share your father’s worries.”
I’d always been the feckless prince, the rake who bedded women well, but never asked for more.
Skadinia did not care for me, and I had no desire to care for her. We could find a bit of comfort around each other, perhaps, but to want more would be reckless.
I’d tried to demand it of myself over and over the whole of the morning.
But . . . I was the fool who’d stepped close to her on that damn shore last night. My hands touched her warm skin. Then I saw the hidden fire in those crystalline eyes, and the craving to have another dose would not leave.
It damn near tortured me.
“Happiness or not, I am seeing this through, Ari.”
“Then I suppose it is time for you to absorb my stunning advice on how to make the most of it.”
“There isn’t much time?—”
“Hush and listen. You’ll be inspired soon enough.” The king held up three fingers. “You do not know each other well, but find something that brightens her days. No matter what it is, seek to grant her that, simply to watch the joy fill her eyes.” He waggled his second finger. “Give her your trust in her strengths, her ideas, and learn to trust her with yourself.”
“What do you mean?”
Ari smiled. “Those secrets you think we don’t know are in there—they should belong to her now.”
The king would be disappointed, but I would never let her in on the weakest part of me. I hardly accepted the notion of Sander and my mother and father knowing.
“And finally, work at the first two every day until she is the one you want at your side on a battlefield.”
Unexpected. “How is that important?”
Ari leaned a bit closer. “In that moment, when she is the only one you want standing with you against a foe, that is when you will know you’ve fallen in love with your wife.”
My family was waiting in the corridor.
Ari followed me and glared at my father. “You seem to have forgotten the last twenty turns of my adoration toward my wife. She’ll be horridly offended you think I’d carry any regrets. I plan to tell her, you shadowy sod.”
My father merely grunted and turned away from his fellow king.
This was one final, desperate attempt to put a halt to this alliance.
Ari let out a long breath and took my mother’s hand, pressing a kiss to the top. “Have it be known, I imparted my majestic words of advice, and I believe we still have vows to attend. Don’t look at me like that.” He glanced at my father again. “He is a grown man, what would you have me do? Chain him to the floor?”
Daj folded his arms over his chest. “I’m not above it.”
My mother stood at my father’s shoulder. A beautiful queen, but vicious in her own right. Her hair was braided around a jagged black circlet, and her bright eyes looked wet with worry.
My mother squeezed Ari’s arm in thanks before the fae king went to find his own family.
She took my hand. “I have no more words to offer, just make certain you do this for the right reasons, Jonas.”
I wrapped my arms around her slender shoulders. My mother was fierce and gentle, as cunning as my father, but she was not so reluctant to reveal her tenderness. “I don’t know what else to tell you. I know this is my mark.”
“This is your life, not a heist.”
I stepped back. “You both taught us how to feel out a step in a plan and never act until you knew the move was sure. This is not a scheme, but it is what I feel is the right move to take.”
A head shorter than me, my mother had to tilt her chin to meet my gaze. “Then we stand at your back and follow your lead. You have us.”
Sander leaned against the wall, flipping through a thin book that looked like short tales of elven lore. “Mira insists she’s never going to forgive you for choosing me to stand at your shoulder.”
“As much as I love my Mira, I refuse to stand through this day without my brother.” I nudged his ribs. “We share such a similar face, perhaps we can swap if I become a coward.”
Sander scoffed, but there was a shadow of words unsaid in his gaze. Like he might want to offer to take my place.
Wouldn’t happen. I had vowed to defend the fae lands, sealed in a spell cast, and I would be the one to see it through today.
I adjusted the polished leather belt around my waist. Everything was finely made from my tunic to the laces on my boots. The title of prince was mine by birth, but my upbringing was hardly regal, not the way I was certain my bride was raised.
Unwelcome apprehension needled into my belly like barbed rope. Would she be miserable in such a court?
Back home, finery was overlooked, prestige and propriety were dull, and I misplaced my official crown over two turns ago. I rarely looked like a prince and never thought much of it until now a woman I was forcing into our world might find it all . . . awful.
“Where are your thoughts?” Sander stepped in front of me, a furrow to his brow.
I forced a smile and patted his cheek, too rough, as we always did. “With the elven wine. I’ve heard a great deal about its taste and potency. Let us hope old Eldirard has overindulged tonight.”
Sander slapped the book closed and tucked it under one arm. “I will stand at your side today. Although, after it’s over, I have things I’ve been learning about the elven folk and?—”
“Later.” I shoved his head. “Gods, can you not read about something for one day.”
“That would be an awful day.” He pounded his fist against my shoulder, took my mother’s arm, and left me with my father.
Silence was thick and potent. At long last, I squared to him. “Daj, I never wanted to disappoint you.”
“You never have.” His voice was the low, dark rasp that once told me tales until I fell asleep as a boy. He blinked, clearing his eyes of the darkness of his mesmer and stood so our chests touched. “But hear me—you’ll be faithful, Jonas. Don’t you dare dishonor your wife. She is your choice, no matter what has brought you together. You will respect her as that choice, understand me?”
Good hells, there was a desperation buried in Kase Eriksson’s tone I’d never heard before. “Daj, this isn’t exactly a traditional vow. She may never allow me to touch her.”
“I suppose that is a problem you’ll need to solve.” He cupped the back of my head and drew my brow to his. “You do make me proud. Now meet your mark; I will see you out there.”