I took it from her, grateful.
“Do you trust me yet?” she asked.
I searched her aura. Nothing felt off about her. She was logical, something I always appreciated. She had pleaded in my favor in the Seating Room, and had protected me from Kane just now.
I shrugged. “I might be starting to. Reluctantly. A little.”
She smiled. “I’ll take ‘reluctantly’ over not at all.”
I shook my head. “Why are you being so nice to me?”
“Why wouldn’t I be?” Kenna asked.
I could only stare in response. “I’m the disgraced daughter of a murdered Arkasva. I brought Rhyan back to the one place he should have never come. Plus, I’m an enemy of the Glemarian Council. Scorned by two of your closest friends. Clearly despised by not only your husband, but also your own father. And … well, I haven’t exactly been that nice to you.”
“It’s okay. I don’t put much stock in first impressions.” But when I didn’t smile at her joke, she sighed, and said, “I am taking an enormous chance here. I am risking everything by choosing to trust you. But I do. Because there is only one recommendation I need in order to know I’m making the right choice—you have the trust of the one person we have in common.”
“Rhyan.”
Her eyebrows lifted in confirmation. “Drink,” she said.
I did, thirstier than I’d realized. And before I could think, I asked, “Are you in love with him?” I wasn’t worried about them. Or their past. Not for a second. Rhyan was mine, my love, my soulmate. I didn’t doubt that. But if I was going to trust her, I had to know the truth.
“No,” she said. “And I never was. Nor was he ever in love with me. Even when we were … together, he was trying to find his way back to you.” She smiled sadly.
I thought of his confession to me before we’d had sex the first time. How he’d always loved me. How he’d fallen for me years ago. But hearing that Kenna existed, and how recently they’d been together, the smallest of doubts had begun to take shape in my mind. Not about us now, but maybe about how he’d felt before. About the truthfulness of his grand claims.
“He never said the words directly,” Kenna continued, “but when he visited Bamaria all those years ago, I knew something happened.”
My eyes watered thinking back to the night of the Summer Solstice. To our first dance, to holding hands and sneaking into the woods. Leaning back against the suntree, Rhyan’s breath against my lips, the way he softened and was finally vulnerable with me, whispering secrets in the dark.
I want to kiss you. Can I?
“We kissed,” I said, and suddenly my longing for him felt like a crushing weight.
“More than that happened,” Kenna said. “He was different when he came back. He was in love. Did you know that for a year, he wouldn’t even look at another girl?” Kenna shook her head in disapproval. “His friends gave him such shit for that, but I recognized what was going on. Then, a little while later, something else happened. He changed. It was kept quiet, but his father had … well … he’d made it known that he was to resumecourting.” Her voice was strained.
I didn’t like the way she said “courting”, like it meant something else here.
“Not long after,” Kenna continued, “my father was in negotiations for a marriage contract between me and the Senator from Hartavia.”
“Hartavia?” My mind began to whirl. “The Senator?” I nearly shouted.
“You know of him?” Kenna asked darkly.
I knew exactly who she was referring to. He was the man who’d molested Rhyan as a boy. He was a fucking monster.
I nodded. “I’ve heard things.”
Kenna bit her lip. “He scared me. And that night … I went to Rhyan. He didn’t know what was going on, just that I needed a friend to talk to, but … one thing led to another, and that ended the negotiations. It wasn’t love between us. I knew going in that I didn’t love him, not like that. His heart was taken.” She nodded to me. “But the relationship we had saved me … for a time. Our fathers liked the prospect of us as a couple, and,” she sighed, “as a political statement. It allowed Rhyan to relax from all the intrigues of Court. He no longer had to face the women his father paraded in front of him. But in the end, we really were just friends—friends who became a lifeline for each other.”
“Okay,” I said slowly. “But you were … ” my chest tightened, “you and him?” I gestured to the bed.
“Yes,” she said bluntly.
I bit my lip.
“Do you know, when he was dreaming, when he thought no one could hear, he’d say your name in his sleep. That’s how I knew it was you still, after all that time.”
