I slide my hand over his cheek, but he refuses to look at me.
“He will be back for me in two weeks. So we have until then to figure this out. Two weeks to figure out how to destroy him and end this.”
“And what if we can’t figure it out? What then?”
“Then in two weeks, I marry him,” I decide. “I find the star. And then I kill him in his sleep.”
55
JACE
My boots stomp over tall grass and overgrown weeds as I reach the wave of crimson flowers swaying in the breeze.
Angelfyre. My mother’s favorite.
In the quiet of the afternoon, with not a sound around save the song of the birds and the trickling waterfall nearby, my mind finally empties.
I haven’t had a moment’s peace since Derek died. Not a single one to breathe—to think long enough to ask myself what the hell I’m doing.
You are no king. King of fools,that old crone in Vod had said.
She was right. Iamno king. I never wanted a crown. I just wanted to fight and die a soldier’s death. But Derek always had bigger plans for me.?*
Fresh pain rips through me at the thought of him.
I’m furious. So furious at him for having to be the hero. For throwing his life away for mine.
He should be here. If he were, maybe we couldfind a way out of this mess. He knew what he was doing, and I just—don’t. Hand of the King was one thing. King regent is another entirely.
My days are filled with endless meetings. Endless questions and planning. What little time I have to myself is dedicated to worrying about Serena.
Where she is. What she’s doing. How am I supposed to run Derek’s kingdom when she is all I think about?
I know I’m obsessing. If I’m being honest, I’ve been obsessed since that day I found her in the Bone Forest. The day I tortured her, stabbed her in the leg, and shelaughedin my face.
She was an enigma. Wild, tenacious, scathing—yet somehow warm and inviting. Addicting.
Haunting.
She’s somewhere across the seas, but she is the ghost in my head, the one I reach for but can never grasp. I keep chasing, and the farther I wander, the faster she evades.
I can’t let her go. No matter how hard I try.
I gather the biggest flowers I can find, making my way toward the two headstones beneath the willow tree.
Jon Fallyn and Sabel Fallyn.
Derek placed these headstones here in their memory, along with two Everblooms. The white petals hold strong no matter the season, their flame visible night and day, rain or shine, never to extinguish. That was the kind of male Derek was.
He loved me before he even knew me.
He saved me from certain death and made me his son.
He brought me up in this world, then left me his only daughter and his crown.
And here I am. Ungrateful and wallowing.
How could I go against his wishes? After everything he’s done, everything he sacrificed.
