“Do not,”Ajja’s words creep into my mind.“It goes against everything we’ve been working toward.”
But it doesn’t matter what he says.
Nothing matters excepther.
Not anymore, and I will gladly let this entire world crumble, disappear into oblivion, if it meansshegets tolive.
“There must be another way.”But even as he says it, I know there isn’t, and so does he.
“Speak, boy. For I know that look on your face all too well.” My father settles into his chair. His fingers massage the muscles in his neck before gripping my mother’s hand. I don’t miss the way she flinches at the contact. Fucking bastard. “Didn’t matter how many times I tried beating it off you. So why don’t you just spit it out.”
He watches me with a grin that makes me want to drown him in shadows.
See how brave he feels when he enters the darkness I’ve been forced to live in constantlybecause of him.
“You will not kill her.”
“Is that so?” He clicks his tongue, angling his head in a way that lets me know he’s just a breath away from losing it entirely. “And why would I ever listen to this demand of yours?”
“Because,” I say, stepping toward him. “I’ll do what you have been asking of me for the last three years. Allow the girl to live, and I will wed Helena. I will unite our kingdom with Bragunda, and you will have access to their army, just as you’ve always wished. Just allow me until my twenty-fourth birthday to make the announcement.”
I glance at my mother, but as always, her mind is anywhere but here. I can tell by the way her eyes wander around the room, stopping on each soldier, every tapestry, but never onme.Her son, the one she abandoned the day her husband first raised a hand to me.
Looking back at my father,the king,his eyes have gone wide. So much desire for the offer I’ve presented.
For Serafina, I will do this.
For her, I would do anything.
Even the one thing I swore I’d never do, allow an alliance between Velegoria and Bragunda—the nation with savage rulers I would rather eradicate from this planet than become one with—to form.
It’s something my father has been after for a while now, and I don’t fully understand why.He says he wants control of their soldiers, and since their country is triple the size of ours, their army is much larger, but I know that’s not it. Not entirely.
There’s something else. Something he’ll gain that he refuses to reveal.
He’s planning something.
“And we’re close to figuring out what it is,”Ajja says.
Not close enough.
Besides, I don’t have a choice. There’s never a choice where she’s concerned.
“She truly doesn’t know? The little Pyroflame you’ve been keeping locked away?” my father asks.
“She doesn’t know,” I say, and it’s the truth, although hours ago, when my lips had been so close to hers, when I almost gave into my selfish desires and did what I’d been dreaming of for weeks, I almost told her. But that didn’t happen.
It canneverhappen.
None of it can.
“Very well, she can live, but if she were to learn the truth—”
“I know,” I snap, hating that I didn’t only inherit his royal blood but also his vicious temper.
I head for the door.
“Wait,” he says, and even without looking, I know he’s smiling. I can hear it in his voice. “One more thing.”
