24. Chapter 24 #3
I breathed slowly, eyes flicking between Camrick’s confident stance, Nisien’s satisfied smirk, and Reina’s sudden, shocked stillness.
“How poetic,” I croaked when my magic finally loosened its grip.
Cam laughed and slapped me hard between the shoulders—a familiar blow meant to ground, not hurt—the kind men gave each other when words failed. I’d have shrugged off anything more tender. He knew me well enough to know that.
Reina folded her arms across her middle, the gesture small and guarded. Anxiety didn’t suit her. Just the sight made my chest ache. A reminder that even shadow-forged steel bent eventually. That frightened me more than weathering the storm of her anger.
Her gaze flicked to the book then flashed back to me with startling intensity. Even so, her voice was quieter than it had been. “Is she your mate?”
Fuck. She was thinking about my parents. I was too.
I couldn’t meet her eyes. My hands clenched and unclenched at my sides. “Probably,” I admitted quietly.
Reina’s expression turned grim, tinged with apprehension. “The bond explains your behavior,” she said. “But it doesn’t make your choice any less fucked up!”
That hit me harder than her anger had, because some buried part of me had been expecting the knowledge to soften her. Like naming my excuse somehow made it righteous.
She exhaled sharply, face suddenly set in the expression she used to get everyone around her in line with her wishes. “When she gets here, you will stay away from her.”
“What? Why?”
“Your mind is a bewildering mix of brilliance and utter horseshit!” Reina’s eyes were black now, sharp blades aimed directly at my face.
“You sent royal soldiers to the home of a woman you left in tears. They carry your banners, your seal, and all the weight of a crown she cannot safely defy. Call them an escort as often as you like, Owain. You have fucking commandeered her after a falling out.”
I wanted to push back. I had an entire argument of justifications ready, but the gentler words for what I’d done fell to dust.
She wasn’t wrong.
I’d dressed my longing up in duty and necessity and the word required.
I’d told myself the story so many times on the way over it had started to feel true.
But at its core, I’d acted like a man who believed his desires justified his actions—a trait I’d always despised.
And nowhere in my plan had I made room for her to remain in Selmont.
I didn’t deserve to be near Lunette. And yet even now, with the ugliness of it laid bare and acknowledged, the pull toward her didn’t loosen by a single degree.
“I will welcome her to the Tir,” Reina continued, already shifting into command. “She will be my project.” She pointed at Cam. “You will keep him busy and help as I require it.”
Cam bowed exaggeratedly.
Nisien had been completely silent thus far, but now he raised one hand. “I will accompany the men you’re sending to escort her.”
I eyed the prince of Darreth. I couldn’t do a damn thing to stop him without starting a war—and he knew it.
“Why?” I ground out, fighting back the wave of jealousy crashing over me.
He shrugged. “This is exactly what I came here for,” he said lightly—as if all the little choices he’d made since arriving in Selmont hadn’t been steering us toward this moment all along.
Nisien never entered a room without intending to rearrange it.
A slow smile spread across his face. “Neither you nor Camrick can leave with Berian as sick as he is. Won’t hurt to have another battlemage around to escort them out of the borderlands. I’ll make my way to Tir Gelida immediately after.”
The moniker “Golden Prince” did little justice to Nisien, who’d be better called a serpent or a master web weaver. In my absence, and with surprising speed, I’d learned that he’d started to persuade my court to see me in a more favorable light.
Was it too much to hope that he might do the same with Lunette?
I’d beg him on my knees and owe him a life debt because he might actually be saving mine if she was my mate. Nisien seemed to enjoy operating behind the scenes, so he’d get my approval at the very least. “All right… Thank you, Nisien.”
“Fine. But you,” Reina said, jabbing a finger at me, “will be the consummate gentleman. We will protect her, but we will not make her feel caged in a situation not of her choosing. I won’t have the future princess’s reputation start out with her justifiably throwing sharp objects at you.”
Future princess. Reina didn’t say things like that lightly. Half of me felt like I was soaring on wings of triumph while something ancient, pugnacious, and irrational rose at the word caged. Still, she was right on all counts.
I’d be fighting a multi-front war. Knowing how I should behave and actually doing it were going to be two entirely separate battles.
The struggle between paralyzing regret and the quiet acceptance that my dark action had been necessary would see me battling my inner demons.
On top of that, I would have to fight to win Lunette back.
No matter what battles came, no matter the sacrifices required, I would have her.