Chapter Fifty-Six
Valeris
Paravellia would never be the same again, but maybe it could be better.
The entire kingdom attended my parents’ funeral, but they did not mourn.
They were not rulers to be missed. If anyone was to be missed, it was Zandyr, and he was.
While there was nothing traditional or conventional about our family relationship, the void of three different people made itself known in my heart—even if I didn’t miss them as much as I knew I should.
Had it once again not been for my uncle, I didn’t know how I would have gotten through it.
I returned the ring to him without asking any questions, and he slid it onto his finger like it had never left.
Both of us were aware of how very different our lives could be right now if not for Analleia’s quick thinking.
I strolled the corridor to her room, fidgeting. The memory of carrying her to the physicians, both of us drenched in her blood, haunted me both in dreams and in waking. I had thought she was dead, that I had lost her, and I didn’t know if I could live with that.
I hesitated outside her door, pacing and worrying my lower lip. What was I going to say? Maybe I had misread her. Misread us.
I bolstered my courage and knocked on the door, waiting for an answer.
“Come in,” her voice called out.
My throat bobbed as I opened the door. She wore riding breeches and a tunic, her hair braided back as if she was preparing for a long journey. A bandage wound around her head, and I couldn’t remove the picture of her covered in blood from my mind.
“You’re alive,” I stated, at a loss for anything else.
She faced me, betraying no emotion. “So it would appear.”
“What a shame,” I said. “To have even the dead reject you.”
Now was not the appropriate time for sarcasm, but I didn’t know how to take the words back, so I accepted the strange look she gave me.
“It appears you’re alive too.” She glanced at the door. “Are you here to lock me away?”
I searched for humor in her voice but couldn’t find it.
“I thought we could skip straight to the execution. The dungeon’s getting a little overcrowded as of late.”
Panic lit in her eyes, and I stopped it with a smile. “You’re free and clear, Analleia. Your name is acquitted. Your brother. Your country. Your family. It’s the least we can do after what my ... after everything you have been through.”
There were no amends that could be made for such tragedy wrought of lies and deception. No apology that could make anything better.
Silence stretched between us as we stood there unsure of how to continue, of what to say. I opened my mouth to speak, but hesitated, afraid to push through the tension.
Tears sprang to her eyes, and she turned away, trying to hide them. “Thank you, Valeris. Not just for that, for everything, and I needed to tell you I’m sorry, needed to apologize for—”
I closed the distance between us in two long strides, cupping her face and silencing her words with a desperate kiss. I wrapped an arm around her waist, pulling her against me, my heart racing as she responded. She wasn’t pushing me away. She was alive. Alive. Alive.
I could still feel her blood seeping through my fingers, the dead weight of her lifeless form. Her screams as the Enchantress had torn through her mind, tried to rip her apart. The words she had mouthed to me.
I’m sorry.
The wall the lies had built between us crumbled around me, the messed-up complexity of everything too confusing to sort through.
I didn’t know what to think, didn’t know what to do or believe, but I did know she was here.
That buried beneath everything, whatever tether pulling us together had been real.
I leaned my forehead against hers, drawing in a deep breath. “I thought you were dead, Analleia. I thought she’d killed you, that you—”
She silenced my worries with another kiss, her touch calming my fears.
“I’m alive, Valeris. I’m here.” She looked up at me through her lashes. “But I lied to you.”
I tsked. “Yes, you should have told me you were here to assassinate my father and throw my kingdom into turmoil. You have no idea how understanding I would have been.”
She let out a little laugh, but it fell away into sadness. “And in the end it wasn’t even him.” Her voice faded, and she swallowed, looking up at me. “I’m sorry about ... about your family.”
I clenched my jaw.
“If life has taught me one thing, it’s that we can’t change the past,” I said. “But we can change the future.”
I laced my fingers with hers. “With Zandyr dead and Ezrielle on trial, I’m assuming the throne.”
“Oh dear,” she teased. “The cocky prince wearing the crown?”
I ignored the humor, keeping my voice serious. “I once asked what your plans were after the finale.”
She stilled, waiting for me to continue.
“I’d like for you to stay here, in Paravellia, with me—if that’s what you want.”
I tripped over my words, not practiced at this and nervous about how she would respond. Worry rose within me, eating away at my calm.
She bit her lower lip. “I’m sure I’d be welcomed with open arms.”
“I’m being serious, Analleia.”
She looked down at our interlaced fingers, fiddling with them, uncertainty raging in her eyes. My heart picked up, needing her to answer.
“So much has happened, Valeris,” she said.
My breath caught, and I nodded.
“If it was only me to worry about, I would think about it but I ... I can’t.”
She pulled away, and I let her go, trying to hide my disappointment.
“If your feelings have changed—” I said.
“Not because of you,” she corrected. “I want to stay, but I don’t want to sit on a throne of blood. I don’t know if I could stay here when ...”
She trailed off, unable to finish, but I knew what she meant. There was too much pain here, too much memory. Hurt.
“Is there any way I could convince you to stay?”
She met my eyes, shaking her head. “Not right now. It’s more than that.”
She glanced at the bed, and I found her packed bags I hadn’t noticed before. My throat bobbed. I was too late.
“You’re leaving.”
She nodded, unable to look at me.
I cleared my throat, grasping for words, seeking a way to keep her from leaving. “Where are you going?”
She took a deep breath. “My brother and I hid away with the Dark Walkers for five years, our identity only known and kept by others within the tower.
When the Enchantress lifted her spell on my name and face, everyone who had seen me at the balls knew who I was.
Remembered who I was—a Kallistar—and word traveled.
“After the finale of the seventh ball, my brother received a letter. Donnovar was not completely destroyed as we had believed. A small remnant of our people survived the destruction.” Hope overwhelmed her voice.
“And they’re waiting for us. They thought my brother and I perished along with the rest of our family in the fire.
They want to rebuild—and they want us to come home. ”
A sad smile encompassed my face. Sad, because I knew I could never ask her to give that up, but happy, because this was everything she had ever wanted. I couldn’t have wished for anything better for her after what she had been through.
“You’re going home,” I said, trying to fill my voice with happiness.
She nodded, trying not to cry, and whispered, “I’m going home.”
I crushed her in a hug, wrapping my arms tightly around her, maybe for the last time, but overwhelmed that after all this time, she had something to hold on to. Something to call her own.
“And you need to be focused on Paravellia for a while.”
I leaned back. “Well, kings usually send ambassadors to do their bidding, but considering Paravellia’s involvement in its destruction, we’ll offer help in any way we can, and I’ll need to oversee Donnovar’s restoration myself.”
She frowned. “Bold of you to assume any Paravellians would be welcome in my kingdom.”
I cocked an eyebrow at her. “I think it’s safe to assume you’ll welcome at least a certain one.”
She shrugged, a mischievous glint in her eye. “Perhaps. I might be able to be persuaded.”
“Then I will see you again?”
She squeezed my hand before leaving to grab her saddlebags from the bed. She hesitated in the doorway, trying to hide her sadness. “I will see you again. Whether in this life or the next.”
“Then goodbye for now,” I said. “Analleia Kallistar.”
She looked at me one last time. “Goodbye for now, Valeris.”
“I’m still holding you to your end of the bargain.”
“That bargain is void. We’ll have to create a new alliance.”
“But what if I need a spy again?” My voice turned coy.
She shrugged, grinning. “You know where to find me.”
I chuckled as she walked out the door, wondering if she knew how soon that might be.