“Do you truly believe such things about your home?”
Time would be wasted trying to explain, and what good would it do? No one would allow me to leave here. “I hope you will find a place to hide when the alvers come.”
I faced the window, uninterested in her look of horror at my words.
Out on the sea, clouds rolled toward the shoreline, an army of darkness here to douse the light. Little by little the candles flickered in the room until they died. Wind beat against the bubbled glass, and the sea disappeared behind the wall of night.
There was a subtle tug in the pit of my stomach whenever the isle shifted.
I closed my eyes and let the tear balanced on my lashes fall to my cheek.
Only when light returned to the glass and candles flickered back to life did the king enter my room. Worn and battered, Eldirard dismissed Cara with a look and closed the door behind us.
“Skadinia.”
I clasped my hands behind my back. “Did you know I hate that name because it is not mine? It was added upon when you brought me here. My mother named me Skadi.”
Eldirard sat on the corner of my bed, arms lax over his knees, his shoulders curved. “I thought you would be clear of these thoughts by now.”
“I will never be clear of these thoughts because Arion lied. As I told you, as you chose not to believe. You gave me an heirloom that led him to me!”
My grandfather flinched. “I wanted a swifter way to reach you, my child. In the event, the alliance grew sour and you were put at risk.”
“The only risk I have ever faced is bymy own damn people.” My voice was sharp and shrill. Emotion thickened in my throat, forcing me to turn away before I broke under his watch.
“I should never have agreed to these vows.” Eldirard let out a heavybreath. “We could have created the legacy without all these toils if I’d kept to the alliance with the Ljosalfar.”
I glanced at the floor. “I am forever grateful you agreed to the prince’s proposition, even though you have betrayed us both.”
“You truly care for him? You have been infatuated with ease before.”
“You think I was infatuated with Cian and Arion? I was desperate and alone and terrified I would be the monster you all feared. Of course, I fell for their words. Until they tortured me, laughed at me, took my body, then mocked and beat me when I did not know what to do.”
When I looked at him again, shame was twisted on my grandfather’s face.
He tugged the circlet from his brow, and ran his slender fingers through his fine hair. “You never said a word, child. Why? I would’ve protected you.”
“Arion was my betrothed, how dare I come to you, the one who gave me so much, and tell you such things about a bloodline prince.” The stone mask cracked with a bitter laugh. “How would it have gone? Arion would’ve been scolded, told to do better. Cian would be reassigned to the other side of the palace, but I would still be betrothed to a wretch of a man for your legacy.”
Eldirard looked stunned. No mistake, this was the first time he truly heard my voice.
“This betrayal is proof enough that no matter what you will always give me as a prize to Arion.”
“Stop speaking as if you mean nothing.”
“I do not matter to you!” Never had I shouted at the king, but it was untamed, and I felt a spark of life in my heart. Jonas’s fire. “At least not for what I can do beyond my affinity. I don’t understand why you have betrayed the treaty. You have every realm of the fae as your ally, yet you turn them against us for a single elven clan.”
The king hung his head. “I wanted to be a king the skald’s praised in their tales for generations. Be it through a union with fae or the joining of elven clans, I did not care. I agreed for Arion to bring you home after hearing the suspicions of Cian’s death. I truly thought you might be in danger.”
“You could think that after you witnessed us together during our visit? You saw how I rejected Arion, yet you did not question why Cian was in alver lands? You merely saw your other option for fame and thought nothing of me and my heart.”
“I wanted your name to live on as much as mine, as a glorious queen of the Dokkalfar.”
Gods, I did not care about my legacy if it was not written with my nightmare.
“Such alliance was written in legends, my child. A great rise of the Dokkalfar, and when I saw you, I knew you were the answer to my fading bloodline.” Eldirard rose and looked out the window with a touch of longing.
“You tore me away from the man I love for a legend?”
