Chapter 13
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Gabe rips aside the partition curtain and bounds forward until his body is between mine and the chancellor’s.
“Ah, I was wondering how long you were planning on hiding,” Chancellor Bren says while rising from the vanity and smoothing out the invisible creases in his suit.
“How’d you—”
“My shadows saw you sneaking in here a few minutes ago.” The chancellor shrugs. “I’ll admit, I’d expected to see you buried between her legs, not cowering in the tub.”
Pink rushes to Gabe’s cheeks, and his father tsks his disappointment.
My nose snarls as I retreat towards the wall and hastily refasten the buttons of the flap. “He’s married.”
The chancellor waves a dismissing hand. “He’s a Bren.
We cannot be expected to refrain from indulgences, no matter who we indulge within, and your infertility is rather convenient.
There’d be no need to worry about concealing the potential fruit of the transgression from the public.
Although your history would complicate things, if you two were to be seen together. ”
Bile burns in my throat. “I can assure you that won’t happen.”
“Unfortunately, dear, it already has.”
He’s right. Between Gabe’s reaction at the ceremony and conspicuously sneaking into my private room, people will talk.
“Well, it won’t happen again,” I say, lifting my chin.
“Finally, a truth.” Humor returns to the chancellor’s cold eyes as he collects the sand clock from the vanity, re-pocketing it. “You don’t mind if I hold onto this, do you? You won’t be needing it during the Hunt.”
Finding his voice again, Gabe asks, “You’re not actually making her go up there, are you?”
“It’s her duty.”
“We had a deal.” Gabe jabs a finger at his father’s chest. “The only reason I agreed to the divorce was because you promised—”
“Our deal was annulled the moment she stooped to desertion.” Chancellor Bren flicks his son’s finger away like it’s nothing more than a minor nuisance. “Would you rather she be imprisoned in the Abyss for treason?”
Gabe’s shoulders deflate.
The chancellor claps a palm on his back. “If I didn’t hold my friendship with the Way family in such high regard, that’s exactly where I’d send her. Be grateful for this mercy. Now, fuck her, if you must, and say goodbye. You have five minutes until my shadows return.”
He offers me one last smile before spinning on his heel and stomping into the hall.
Silence descends after the door clicks into place.
Gabe’s soft auburn brows furrow low as our gazes lock. But while his pupils dilate in and out, searching for what to say, mine remain unmoving.
What does he expect from me? Gratitude? His intervention saved me from baring my backside for his father, but perhaps the chancellor wouldn’t have bothered paying me a visit if his henchmen hadn’t seen Gabe sneaking in here.
My head pounds with the all-too-familiar effort of trying to make sense of why these Bren men insist on bringing chaos into my life. I tilt my neck back, fighting to keep my hooded lids from closing.
Gabe is the first to break. “I’m sorry, Elle.”
“For what?” I whisper, relying on the steady presence of the wall at my back, holding me upward as a decade’s worth of walls are crumbling within me.
“Sorry for divorcing me? For showing up now, pretending like you care whether I live or die, after ten fucking years of nothing? Right when I was this close to erasing your name from my mind. Or are you sorry you still haven’t found the balls to stand up to your father, even while he speaks about me like I’m no better than a whore for the taking? ”
My voice rises as the words continue spilling out. “What exactly are you sorry for, Gabe? I’d love to know before deciding whether to accept your apology.”
“For all of it!” Gabe throws his hands in the air before bunching them in his mussed hair. “None of this was supposed to happen. My father . . . I made him promise you’d have permanent exemption from the Hunt, as long as I agreed to the divorce.”
“You what?” I sink down the stone wall, legs unable to bear the weight of this revelation.
He steps forward, then halts when I flinch.
The man standing before me now is capable of causing infinitely more pain than the one who threatened imprisonment. The chancellor can harm me physically, but only his son can harm the one thing more fragile than this impaired outer shell: my heart.
He didn’t just break it. He tore it into a thousand pieces and tossed them out, along with a trunk of my belongings and a mangled remnant of our marriage brand.
It’s taken ten years to find those pieces and stitch them back together into a mockery of what it was.
A patchwork heart, one wrong move from tearing apart the seams.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” I finally ask.
Gabe lowers himself to the floor, meeting me at eye level—reminding me of how gentle he used to be with me.
“It was part of the agreement. My father didn’t want word to spread of your exemption. If others knew, they might question why you’d be excused from doing your duty. They could accuse him of abusing his power.”
I can’t help the breathy scoff that escapes through my nose. The chancellor’s been abusing his power since well before his first term. The notion that my exemption from the Hunt would be the catalyst to stir up dissent after eighteen years of his actions going unchecked isn’t even a good lie.
“And you believed him?”
The lines along his forehead deepen. “I had no choice. You know I have a different vision for Caligo’s future, but none of it will happen if he doesn’t back me as his successor. And I need our people’s trust as much as I need his.”
And there it is.
Gabe’s love for this city runs deep. Deeper than whatever love he felt for me—a bitter truth learned too late.
The lamp on the vanity illuminates Gabe’s silhouette in a violet aura while he stares at me expectantly, begging me to understand. And I do. I understand why he replaced me with a woman who could bear his heirs. It isn’t a mystery to me why he bends the knee to his father time and time again.
“Okay,” is all I say, knowing it isn’t what he wants to hear, but it’s all I’m willing to give.
“Okay? Does that mean you forgive me?” Gabe presses.
“It means I understand. You are your father’s son.” I shrug, like it’s as simple as that. Because it is. Despite their differences, both Brens crave power. More than anyone or anything.
Before Gabe can push any further, I shove myself back to standing and tug open the door. “You can go now.”
And then my ex-husband does what he does best. He walks away, leaving only the ghost of his clean linen scent behind.