What the fuck?
Amelia walked silently beside Rennick to their rooms, thankful to have someone to lean on for once. She could feel hisworry, and he had enough things on his plate without her familial crisis weighing him down.
“What was the point in telling me?” she wondered aloud. “I would have been none the wiser.”
Rennick opened the door to their rooms and waited for her to cross the threshold. “He wants to know you. He watched you grow up without him.”
Guilt slammed into her. She’d been so worried about herself that she’d not taken a moment to think of how it might have affected Amos. “I’m a terrible person.”
“You’re in shock, love.” Rennick led her to the bathroom, started a bath, and stood behind her to undo her dress. “He understands.”
After he helped her bathe and get ready for bed, they climbed under the covers and faced each other. She noticed the lines etched into his young face and reached up to smooth them away. It’d been a long day for them both, and it wasn’t even dinner time yet.
“Are you okay?” she asked quietly.
He smiled wryly. “I’m not the one who had their world tipped upside down today.”
She scooted closer and stroked the dark stubble on his jaw. “Did rebels attacking the walls remind you of your mother?”
He covered her hand with his and leaned into her palm. “It did. I remember watching my father run with her limp body in his arms, and when I saw our men fighting outside of the walls, I—what if you’d been outside and one had slipped in somehow?”
Seeing the mighty King of the Mountain Kingdom fight back tears, feeling his despair, was heart-wrenching. “You left me with Echo, and your father left his murderous house cat, too.”
Rennick’s chest shook with laughter, the tight lines around his eyes loosening. “Don’t let Reyna hear you say that.”
“How did she know Amos? Echo wanted to run a sword through his heart, but Reyna licked him.”
“My father traveled to the Desert Kingdom often to check on Amos. He didn’t want your father’s ideals to rub off on him.”
That surprised her. “Why did it matter?”
“Amos knew everything about you. My father would have gone to the human queen and demanded you be moved if he felt your brother had become a threat.” Rennick mindlessly stroked the back of her hand. “And I think he saw a little boy with a cruel father and no mother who needed someone to love him. Over the years, they bonded. My father talks about Amos as though he is his own son.”
Amelia’s throat tightened at what Callum did for her brother. “The Desert King wasn’t suspicious of your father visiting often?” She found that hard to believe. If what they’d spoken was true, the two kings’ personalities were vastly different.
Rennick’s smile was small, but pride shone in his eyes. “My father made friends with the man, even though he despised everything the former Desert King stood for. He didn’t care what others thought. Our people know he is good, and that was all that mattered. He did what he had to do for you and your brother.”
She trailed her hand down Rennick’s neck, watching the skin raise under her touch, willing herself not to cry again. “The people know you’re good, too.” Her eyes met his. “I’ll do everything I can to make them accept me.”
He cuffed her wrist and rubbed her pulse with his thumb. “I’m a good king, but I am not my father. I am notgood. My soul is not beautiful or bright or even a shade of grey. It is an unforgiving inferno, and if our people refuse to accept you as their queen, they will burn their way into the afterlife.”
There was no doubt in Amelia’s mind that Rennick meant every word, and she knew, if their roles were reversed, she’d mean it too.
30
Amelia stood beside Fawn in the laundry room, folding towels and telling her about everything that had happened the day before, while the men were in a meeting discussing the rebel attack.
“I saw Ora in the dining hall last night,” Fawn remarked slyly. “She made a big fuss about the guards not allowing her to see Rennick last night.”
Amelia scoffed at the audacity of that wretched woman. “We were supposed to banish her from the palace yesterday afternoon, but the rebels attacked.”
Fawn whistled. “When will you tell her and, more importantly, can I be there to see it?”
“Me too,” Echo said from the doorway where they stood sentry. “I’d love to see the look on her face.”
Amelia slammed a folded towel into the basket with more force than necessary. “I can’t wait to see her face, either. It’s why Rennick hasn’t told her yet; he said I could be the one to do it.” The cloth in her hand wrinkled in her grasp. “He said she thinks she’s his mate.”
Fawn’s jaw dropped. “She actually believes that?”
