The door shut behind us, and Galen moved to light a lamp at his bedside table, casting the space in a soft golden glow. Dark red curtains were drawn back from the window. Moonlight illuminated the wide bed with its oak headboard and a myriad of white and gray throw pillows. A gray rug sat on the floor in the center of the room beneath a small table and two burgundy wingback chairs. Galen’s trunks rested in a corner, with several cloaks and tunics hanging inside an open armoire.
He turned to face me, weariness heavy in his eyes. “Clarissa, could this have waited until?—”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” I snapped. “This power. This curse. Did you not think I had the right to know?”
Instead of answering me, he glared at Thorne. “You told her?”
“Don’t blame him.You’rethe one who asked to ally with my empire, Galen. You asked tomarryme. Don’t you think this was information I should’ve had before I agreed to any of it?”
“Would it have changed your mind?” he countered.
I threw my hands in the air. “I don’t know! But I wanted thechoice. It’s become more than just about me, though. This land is suffering, and your people don’t even know why.” I let out a disbelieving breath as something occurred to me. “Was that your plan? Get me to come here and agree to be your queen so I could help you solve your problems? So you could exploit me and use Veridia’s magic?”
“No—no, Clarissa, that wasn’t it. I swear,” Galen said, taking a step toward me.
I backed up. My hand accidentally brushed against Thorne’s and sent a flare up my arm before I pulled away.
“I wasn’t trying to trick you,” Galen continued. “I just…this was the only thing I knew to do. There’s more to the story—please, let me explain.”
My anger turned to hesitancy, and I glanced up at Thorne. His gaze was fixed on Galen, the crease at his forehead deepening. “What are you talking about, Galen?”
So Thorne didn’t know everything, either.
More secrets.
“What else is there?” I asked.
Galen ran his gloved fingers through his hair. A dark brown lock fell over his eyebrow. “It’s the real reason I reached out to your council. The reason I asked you to come here. It—it wasn’t just for an alliance.” A pause. “You’rethe only way to break this curse, Clarissa.”
A ringing formed low in my ears. “I—I don’t understand.”
“Thorne told you about my ancestor Nyses, yes?” Galen asked, and I nodded. “His son gained an audience with the Fates several decades after Nyses died. He was penitent and tried to get them to grant him and his descendants mercy, saying they shouldn’t inherit the sins of one man. The Fates made a deal with him: since the curse was born out of greed and envy toward the Veridian Empire, the only way to end it would be to join the two lands. Unite Mysthelm and Veridia under a bond of marriage, and the curse would break.”
“What?” Thorne snapped.
Chills spread across my skin. I started pacing the floor, unable to look at either of them as I processed this.
A bond of marriage. That was why he was so urgent. Why he reached out to us so quickly after his father’s death, why he pushed for this engagement as opposed to a simple alliance. If he wanted to break this curse, he had to marryme.
“How has nobody tried to do this before now?” I asked.
“Some of my ancestors have tried to contact your empire, but nobody ever responded. Either they never received our attempts, or they ignored us. But not all Grimaldis have wanted to bridge the gap—their pride was strong, their hatred for the Veridian Empire too consuming to ask for their help. You’re the first one who’s shown any interest in peace.”
I scoffed at that. “And look how that turned out for me.”
Galen pressed on. “I know it was under somewhat false pretenses, but do you honestly think you’d be here if I had led with the entire truth?”
I chewed on my bottom lip. “I don’t know.” Crossing to one of the chairs, I sank into the cushion, resting my elbow on the armrest.
There were so many conflicting emotions warring inside me. Anger, of course, although that was swiftly morphing to hurt. Betrayal, even. Which was ridiculous, considering I barely knew these people. Why should I feel betrayed by two men who’d been complete strangers—bordering on myenemies, if you took intoaccount the feud over the last three centuries—until three days ago?
Part of me felt used. Disposable, like I was some pawn they could move around and twist into doing their bidding to get what they wanted. The vulnerable, volatile woman Lord Stryker always painted me as.
My thoughts screamed, begging for an outlet. Even without my Shifter half, I was still just as emotional, just as easily riled. But it had nowhere to go. No magic to consume my emotions and turn them into power. It was like when I was a child and couldn’t let my feelings out, couldn’t control the rage and hurt and confusion that swirled in me like a storm.
I took a deep breath and did what my mother taught me to do as a young Shifter.
Focus on three things I could see.
