Eira bit her lip. She knew all the reasons why Cullen bent over backwards at his father’s requests. Cullen had told her of that fateful day when he had summoned a tempest due to his powers manifesting uncontrolled. A great cover-up followed so that the first Windwalker identified after Vhalla Yarl could be brought to Solarin with trumpets, rather than in chains. Their family was elevated to nobility, giving them the power to maintain their own reputation. Yemir became a senator and a regular courtier—no doubt to keep a close eye on Cullen and a firm hand around any rumors in the process. They were well dressed, polished. A continuation of Vhalla’s Windwalker legacy. The picture-perfect image of an up-and-coming royal family.The Prince of the Tower.
All the while Cullen’s guilt continued to fester, eating away at him from the inside out with rot that nothing could cure. She was the only one who knew of it. The only one Cullen had confided in… Could she really push him away after all that?
“I can’t explain all the details…but he does care a lot for his family.” Eira grabbed her knees, stretching back and trying to release her tension with a heavy exhale. “As much as I hate him right now, as bad as he hurt me, I can’t share why he thinkshehas to do this for his family—why Yemir has such a hold on him. It’s not my place and it wouldn’t be right.”
“Youhatehim?” Alyss whispered, emerald eyes wide and shimmering. Oh, her friend. Ever the romantic. Seeing her so choked up was a gift; it made Eira want to be composed for them both and that helped keep her together.
“This is more than just him being engaged.” Noelle saw right through her. “What else happened?”
Eira had told them everything so far. She had no reason to stop now. And she wanted to carry on. But wanting to made it no easier to find the right words.
“The night before the ball—two nights ago,” she started slowly, each word harder to say than the last. “Cullen came to my room, and we spent the night together.”
“Intimately?” Noelle clarified.
Eira nodded. Alyss let out a soft gasp.
“So let me get this straight—he came to you, knowing he was betrothed to another, knowing the promise of his hand was going to come out sooner rather than later, andstillcrawled into your bed?”
Eira could only nod a second time.
“Well, that’s it, his undergarments burn and he’s lucky if I let him take them off first.” A lash of fire jumped from Noelle’s lips as she seethed.
Eira leaned back in her seat and wrapped her arms around herself. For the first time in a long time, she felt cold. It was a chill that was reminiscent of the one that followed Marcus’s murder in the lake that night, though far less severe.
If she could survive losing her brother…she could survive anything.
Even if, when she closed her eyes, she could still see the charred remains of her heart left behind from Cullen. It was a void as dark as the pit. With a bracing breath, Eira opened her eyes to find her friends patiently waiting.
“I appreciate your defense of me. But I don’t want any retribution,” she said calmly.
“But—”
“No,” Eira interrupted Noelle. “We have the tournament to focus on, and Ulvarth. We have more important things than my wounded pride and Cullen’s poor choices. We’re stronger facing off against the people who would hurt us as a team—and that team includes Cullen.”
“Do you forgive him?” Alyss asked.
“I’m not sure.” Eira let out a bark of bitter laughter. It seemed like something so simple to know. So obvious one way or another. But it wasn’t clear to her. “I think I’dliketo, but I’m not completely ready to yet. And I’d like it if he properly apologized first.”
Noelle snorted and looked down the bridge of her nose at Eira through heavy lashes. “Take it from me, it’s not worth forgiving men who cheat. Men like that are the worst of the worst.”
Eira was suddenly reminded of one night before dinner during the trials to select the competitors who would represent Solaris. It had been the night when she had found out her parents had not been the people she thought. That was the night she found Noelle and Adam squabbling in the Tower hall following his infidelity. The night Eira had decided she had more important things to deal with than holding grudges for poor choices surrounding pranks and offenses made against her years ago.
“Did you ever make peace with Adam before you left?” Eira asked before she could think better of it. Noelle slowly stretched forward, reminiscent of some large, feline predator. Instinct had Eira shifting uneasily in her seat, even though she knew she wasn’t the target of Noelle’s ire. “I shouldn’t have asked.”
Resting her elbows on her knees and lacing her fingers together between them, Noelle hung her head and slowly shook it. When she looked up again, her dark eyes were filled with fire. “No, I didn’t, and I have no intention to. Cross me and you’re as good as dead, literally or figuratively. I will not invest my time in those who will not give me an even return.”
“No romantic redemption plots for you, then,” Alyss murmured. “Definitely a second-chance-at-love story after you learn to trust again.”
“What are you talking about?” Confusion softened Noelle’s features.
“I like to imagine what everyone’s love story would look like if it were penned. It helps me guess what’s coming next in my books.” Alyss shrugged.
“You’re going through love-novel withdrawals if you’re turning us into characters from your stories.” Eira shook her head at her friend.
“Can you blame me? I could only find one,oneromance story in the whole Archives! And it was some improbable tale about an elfin king and human queen in a distant world where elfin were uncommon.”
“And how long did that one last you?” Noelle asked.
