Chapter 25 #2
Isher closed his eyes and when he opened them once more, she saw something she hadn’t seen in a very long time.
Dread flashed through her.
“After everything we are to each other, it saddens me you think I’m my brother.”
Terena’s mind screamed at her until she thought she might faint. Taking another step back, she shook her head.
The prince lifted his chin and smiled. The way Lerek used to smile at her.
“Say it,” he whispered.
Terena shook her head again.
He took a step closer and stopped. “Say it.”
Her lips parted and her heart thundered behind her ribs. She felt as if the world had stopped turning.
Swallowing, Terena took another step back. But she could not escape what was in front of her eyes. What her heart knew before her mind did.
“Lerek.”
Lerek stared at Terena, drinking in everything about her, from her disheveled sable hair to the mud-crusted boots as she paced in front of him.
She was more beautiful than he remembered.
Harder, too. Her face seemed thinner, and her hazel eyes had an almost manic glint to them, although maybe it was shock at seeing him alive.
“How?”
Lerek blinked out of his reverie to focus on her question. “How? That is a very convoluted story.”
“Try anyway,” Terena bit out, twin spots of color pinking her cheeks.
He sighed. “Might I have some water? Your men stole me away from camp some time ago and I am parched.”
Terena’s beautiful eyes narrowed. “Swallow your spit.”
“Not going to make this easy, are you?”
Terena laughed, the sound snapping out at him like a slap, and he flinched back.
“No, Lerek. I don’t think I will.” She walked to him, stopping within inches of him. “Start talking.”
Lerek straightened. This was a very different Terena from the one he’d known his whole life. The one who had befriended him when most children were scared to say anything to the crown prince.
The one who stole his heart and was the reason he’d come up with the most foolish idea that had brought them to this place right now.
Pursing his lips, Lerek shifted and dropped his gaze.
“My father would never let me marry you,” he started.
When he looked back at her, she’d flinched back, staring at him in horror.
“I asked him for permission before you and I ever… I was in love with you—am in love with you—long before you returned my feelings. I went to my father, but he refused me. He already had someone in mind. The sister of King Yorgos of Lasteika. The alliance would bring him one step closer to pulling Pyrgos into his empire. So, I put a plan in motion to switch places with Isher. When the convoy to meet the new northern king left, Isher was to travel with them. As me.”
Terena looked baffled. All the color had drained from her face.
He took a step forward and his chest squeezed when she jerked back.
Lerek held up a hand. “It wasn’t supposed to happen the way it did.
In my mind, my father wouldn’t know what happened until well after you and I married.
That’s why I asked you to stay in Aurora, do you remember?
That’s where I was going to meet you once Isher left with the convoy. ”
Still looking at him as if she didn’t know him, Terena did not reply.
Lerek continued. “Someone betrayed me. I don’t know who, but I promise you, Terena, I will find them and I will—”
“How was Daris involved?”
Lerek stilled. His eyes narrowed as he watched her. “Daris?”
Terena pursed her lips and waved a hand at him. “Commander Daris Antonius of Sparta. How did he figure into your plan?”
Rubbing absently at his wrists, Lerek shifted. His voice cold, he said, “You are overly familiar with the Liodari commander, I think.”
The flood of color rising in her face made his blood boil.
“You’re in no position to judge,” she snapped, her chest rising and falling rapidly.
“I’m not judging, Ren,” Lerek retorted. “I just can’t help but think your mourning period was brief for all you claimed to have felt for me.”
Terena rushed toward him, and for a flash of a moment, he was frightened of what he might’ve unknowingly unleashed.
Grabbing his tunic in both fists, she brought her face within inches of his and whispered, “Your ridiculous plan put me and Sonah in your dungeons.” She pushed him away and rubbed a hand over her face.
“We were to be executed for a crime we didn’t commit and when asked about Sparta’s involvement, your first thought is of how I didn’t properly mourn you? Are you fucking kidding me?”
Looking desperately around the tent, Terena made to move past him, but he grabbed hold of her arm.
“I’m sorry!”
The words felt inadequate, and he searched for something more. “I never meant for you to get arrested. I tried to talk to you that night when you found us, but you… I am sorry, Ren. I am so fucking sorry. I cannot say it enough.”
“And Sonah?” Terena asked as she jerked her arm out of his grip. “Did you not think of her?”
He hung his head. “She was always meant to travel with Isher. I knew it was a possibility she might figure it out before he even reached the north, but I also knew she loved him and would keep our confidence. I swear, Ren, on Gaia and all the old gods, I never thought this would happen. And when it did, I begged Daris Antonius to leave me in Aurora with the firstborns. But he had orders from his king to bring me to Sparta.”
Swallowing, Lerek took a step forward, wincing as Terena held up a hand with a warning glare.
He sighed. “I allowed the commander to convince me it was for my own good. That someone plotted against me at the White Palace, and until I knew who, the only way to keep me alive was to stay away from Metilai. You have to understand, I thought I could use Sparta to form an alliance with me. If I could get King Altos to agree, I could go back to Metilai and force my father to—”
“Force your father?” Terena laughed, her eyes dark with disbelief.
“Your plan may have been naive, Lerek, but I never took you for stupid. How exactly are you going to force your father to do anything? You hatched an ill-conceived scheme and got your brother killed! And it almost cost me and Sonah our lives as well, all because you could not force your father to do anything!”
Heat flooded Lerek’s face and neck. Lips pinched, he took a moment before answering. Terena was entitled to her anger, but gods was he tired of everyone treating him like a silly child.
“My father will do as I say because I have a feeling I know who was behind my attempted assassination and Isher’s murder. I can leverage that to stave off war and bring some order back to the continent.”
“Oh, brilliant!” Terena clapped slowly. Lerek’s face burned hotter. “Pray, who do you suspect?”
“Never mind that now,” Lerek grunted with a slice of his hand. “I know I’m in no position to ask, but would you grant me a favor? Return me to my camp and come with me to Metilai. Your friends, your warriors, are welcome to join us.”
Terena’s face darkened, her eyes calculating as she canted her head.
“I forgot how arrogant you are,” she said softly, the words punching into his chest like a hammer. “What part of ‘your father tried to fucking kill me’ was lost on you? Gods above and below. Your false death has—”
Terena stopped abruptly, which was fortunate because Lerek could feel his birthright ready to rear its ugly head with sharp words he would not filter.
Her expression flashed from stunned to unreadable, and he was left unsettled.
Lerek watched her in silence as her gaze dropped, shielding her from his probing curiosity.
“I…” she swallowed and took a step back. “Soros!”
Lerek jerked back, hands up as two large men came through the tent flap. Lerek backed away. The man who’d captured him watched him with a hungry, feral glee while the other man grabbed him.
“Soros, tie him up and put him in my tent. And have Rydon bring the cypher here.”
Lerek opened his mouth to protest, but his captor’s lips curled back as he snatched Lerek’s wrist and wrenched his arm back hard enough to make Lerek gasp.
“Take him away. Now.”
“Ren, please! What—”
His captor yanked his arm, eliciting a grunt of pain from Lerek as he dragged him out of the tent. Lerek dug in his feet, protesting and shouting for Terena.
Before the soldier holding him pulled him away from the tent, he heard Terena say something about a prophecy.
“There’s no need for—”
“Nighty night,” the brute holding him said, bringing the hilt of his sword to Lerek’s temple.