Chapter 3
Rosalina
Keldarion.
I belong to him. I am his. Warmth spreads through my body. He’s looking at me. But there’s a frown on his face, his handsome brows creased, white strands of hair falling free from the knot at the nape of his neck. I don’t want him to be unhappy.
I’m in his chambers. Everything smells like him. He’s alone. All mine.
“Keldarion,” I say, “I belong to you.”
He still doesn’t move. The cloak around my shoulders falls to the ground as I crawl closer to him. An icy breeze from the open window sends goose bumps skittering across my skin.
Now I’m naked, but what does it matter?
I make it to Keldarion and grip his leg, resting my cheek on his thigh. He’s shaking, but not from the cold. Something else. Anger?
“Do I not please you?” I worry my bottom lip and wrap myself tighter around his leg. “I’ll do anything you ask.”
Keldarion gives a low growl and reaches for the discarded cloak. “Stars, his scent is all over you. And this?” He throws the cloak away before gathering me in his arms.
I smile into his neck and eagerly cling to him. Yes, this is what I need. To be close to him. To serve him.
Unceremoniously, he drops me to the bed and wraps a warm knit blanket around my shoulders.
I like this blanket. It smells like him—and that other scent he mentioned.
Why would I smell like anyone else? Why would I need anyone else?
I take a deep breath, inhaling Keldarion’s scent—pine and cranberries and wood smoke.
But there’s something deeper, something clinging to my skin. Lavender and moss…
Lilac eyes, a thatch of dark hair, blood staining his mouth. I look down. There’s a spatter of red across my chest. His blood.
A sharp pain cuts across my skull, and I whimper.
Keldarion is there, running a hand along my brow. “Are you alright? Did he hurt you? Where are the other princes?”
I give a contented sigh, the pain in my head gone. With Keldarion here, I don’t need anyone else. “Keldarion, I belong to you.”
Something bright burns hot in my chest. Of course I belong to him; even my heart knows it. But…
There are other fires there too. The warmth of the summer sun, the blossoming of a seed, the rustle of a leaf, and the caress of a shadow. How can I belong only to Keldarion with so many other fires in my heart?
Keldarion gives a sad smile. “Of course you can’t comprehend what I’m saying. The bargain won’t allow it. Know, with every fiber of my being, that I do not mean this.”
“Kel?”
“Rosalina, you are not wanted here.”
There’s a snap within me.
In an instant, it all comes flooding back—all the light of my loves and the pain. The pain of what happened to them.