Chapter 36 #3
“Do you understand what she did? What could happen if it becomes known?” she gritted out. “She’d be arrested. Imprisoned at best or execute—” She couldn’t finish the sentence. “Everyone here wants the killer’s head on a spike. There’s only so much I can do to protect her.”
“That’s where you’d draw your line?” Sebastian bit out.
The accusation in his tone made her blood boil, then ice over.
“There’s no line. There’s no simple answer.
This isn’t easy. It’s not just about me.
It’s not just us. Our family. Kai. She murdered a king.
This involves all of Deimos, our allies, who want some form of justice.
And once they’re through with her, where do you think their attention goes next?
” She paused, giving him a chance to answer.
His falling features were enough of a response to show his understanding.
They’d target her next, then him, their father.
“I won’t turn my back on my family. I can’t, which means it would all lead to more suffering, more mess. ”
Sebastian blew out a hard breath, shaking his head. “So, what are we supposed to do?” He threw out his arms. “Pretend she’s still dead? Like she doesn’t matter, like she doesn’t exist?”
“No,” Isla snapped and then groaned. “Well, yes. She’s better hidden. Safer.”
“And you’re sure she’s safe?”
Isla’s shoulders slumped. “No.”
Sebastian let out an astonished breath. “What the hell are we supposed to tell Dad?”
“Nothing.” Isla swallowed, guilt threatening to suffocate her. “If he knew the truth, he’d probably go after Cassius, and we know how that would end.”
The warning worked two-fold. Sebastian couldn’t try anything rash, either.
He shook his head, his features twisting in agony. It was too much. “This is fucked, Isla.” His voice guttered.
“I know,” she breathed. “I know.”
A muscle feathered in Sebastian’s jaw as a tense silence settled between them. Isla fought against the cold crystallizing her veins, against the stirring beneath her skin.
Not now. Not real. Not happening.
“How long have you known she was alive?”
She snapped her eyes up, watching the wind ruffle Sebastian’s hair. And in a flash, he looked as he did the day they’d learned of their mother’s fate. Though now, rather than agony and distress, his eyes gleamed with disappointment. “A few weeks.”
“A few weeks,” he repeated, his voice broken.
His lips pursed, and he looked off as if he’d been recounting all the times he’d been with her, all the times he’d suspected their mother was alive, and thought himself crazy, sparing her his theories so he wouldn’t reopen her old wounds while he suffered alone.
Isla stepped forward, her arm outstretched. “Seb—”
He retreated. “I need to think.” He fell another step, backing down the hill. “Have, uh… have a good time in Mimas.”
Isla didn’t stop him, only watching as he disappeared into the brush.
When Isla looked into the murky river waters, she swore they still eddied with Eli’s blood. She let the gentle rocking of it take her as she stood at the far edge of the dock while the crew readied the boat for their trip.
She didn’t flinch when she heard the heavy footsteps on the wooden boards, only letting out a small breath when Kai came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist.
“Don’t leave me,” he whispered, with the perfect hint of drama, as he dropped his head to place a kiss on her neck. Isla wished it had been enough to crack the well of emotion in her chest. Better to fall apart and let it all out now with him than break down anywhere else.
Kai snapped his head up, examining the side of her face. “What happened?” When she didn’t answer right away, his finger hooked beneath her chin and turned her gently.
She swallowed hard, her sky-blue eyes tumbling through the storms of his, seeking answers.
How much did he hate her mother for what she’d done? How much was he masking it for her sake?
“I talked to Sebastian, and now he knows everything.” Her gaze lowered to the dock, tracing the rotted lines in the dark wood. “I should never have kept it from him. I had no right.”
Kai fully turned her so he could take her in his arms. A simple, loving embrace to any outside eye while everyone was surely, secretly watching.
She should’ve done better to keep up appearances. Who knew how the gossips would spin her looking so downtrodden.
“No, it wasn’t,” Kai said softly. “You did what you thought you needed to do to protect him.”
Isla wrapped her arms around him, sinking into his warmth and wishing they could stay like this forever. “All I did was put off the inevitable and found a way to hurt him more.”
She felt Kai comb his fingers through her hair. “Where is he now?”
“I don’t know.” Worry clenched her heart like a fist. “I asked some of the staff to keep tabs on him, but I don’t know where he went.”
“I’ll find him.”
She pulled back to meet Kai’s eyes again. “Thank you.”
Kai took her face in his hands, crooning in a slightly mocking tone, “Anything for my beautiful mate.”
Isla rolled her eyes, a smile tugging at her lips as a lightness spilled into her chest. And then, he closed the distance between them.
She sighed into the kiss, relishing the feeling of his mouth on hers, the way the world melted, and nothing else mattered in his embrace.
One of Kai’s hands had gone to her waist, while the other angled her head, taking a little more of her lips as he traced his tongue along them. That damn tongue. Heat flooded her cheeks and pooled in her lower belly.
She could feel him smiling.
“Unfair,” she whispered into the kiss, and then there was the sound of a cracking flashbulb nearby.
They broke apart, heads turning to where a reporter, not so smoothly, tried to hide behind a stack of barrels after snapping their photo.
With his narrowed focus remaining on the man, Kai asked her, “What do you think the headline will be?”
Isla groused, “Alpha is the world’s biggest tease.”
Kai chuffed a laugh and turned back to her. “This morning wasn’t enough for you?”
“No.” Her simple answer seemed to amuse him further, but then something dawned on her. Her eyes darted to either side of him. “Where’s the pup?”
“At home.”
Her eyes snapped to his. “By himself?”
“He was sleeping last I saw him.”
Isla gaped. “But he’s going to be terrified when he wakes up!”
The concern that edged her voice had surprised her as much as it seemed to surprise Kai. She couldn’t explain how the little creature had captured her heart. Maybe it was his innocence. A monster not yet forged.
Hope. Most likely horribly misplaced hope.
Kai took her in frankly and lowered his voice. “Well, I can’t bring a baby bak with me through the hall.”
Isla sighed, gnawing on her lip in thought. “We’re going to have to figure something out. Someone to watch him when we’re not around.”
“Oh, that’ll be an easy sell,” Kai mused. “Please watch our baby monster. We apologize if he decides to eat you.”
Isla deadpanned, “We’ll. Figure. Something. Out.”
Kai’s eyes slid over her face again, a smile tugging at his mouth. “If you’re like this now, I can’t imagine how you’ll be with our pups.”
The statement made Isla’s stomach toss and flutter, but she snipped back, “If this is a test run, I’m afraid how you’ll be.” A lie. She couldn’t wait to see him as a father and knew he’d be an amazing one. “Probably letting them run amok.”
Kai poked at her side. “We’ll just have to get there, won’t we?”
Get there… when everything stopped being so shitty.
“One day.” Isla smiled tightly.
Kai flicked her nose. “One day.”
In the distance, she could hear the crew yelling that the ship was set to go, followed by the vessel’s horn, which sent all the perched birds into flight. “I need to go.”
“Technically, you go when you want to go,” Kai said. “You are the queen.”
“Okay, I should go. Any last words of advice?”
“Just be you.”
“You can’t do better than that?”
He huffed, muttering something about her being hard to please. “If you meet a guy named Jax, don’t believe anything he says.”
Isla furrowed her brows in amusement. “Why?”
“Because he tends to embellish stories of our youth.”
“Ah.” Isla grinned and reached up to pinch his cheek. “Tales from the rebellious little prince days.”
Kai hummed in agreement before leaning down to kiss her, the embrace not lasting nearly long enough.
He pulled back just enough to rest his forehead against hers, murmuring, “I love you.”
Isla brushed her mouth against his one last time, burning its perfect shape into her mind. “I love you. Stay out of trouble while I’m gone and expect me back if I feel anything wrong.”
Kai laughed and echoed her mock threat. “Let’s see if we can make it a few days without anything freakish happening.”
Isla held back her scowl, feeling phantom ice fill her veins again.
Later. She’d tell him, worry him, later. They just needed to get through the following few days.
She stole one more kiss before they finally broke apart, then Isla headed to the boat and her first true test as queen. Kai watched her from the dock until they sailed from sight.