I’d already offered him my love, and he’d rejected it outright.
He could have compelled me tostaywith him, but instead he’d used his power to make me leave.
I loved him, but if he refused to let himself love me, being near him would be unrelenting agony.
Besides, if I took Kem’s words to heart and went back to Pharis’ castle now, it would only make him a target for Stellon. And Stellon was the King.
I had no wish to be the cause of a civil war—or a family feud. It was best for both of us if I stayed away.
Kem watched me with hopeful eyes.
“I’m sorry,” I told her. “I can’t go back to Stormcrest. I know you believe I’m the answer to your prayers, but I assure you I am not.”
The girl let out another sob but stood, accepting my refusal.
I walked behind her as she made her way to the door.
“Will you tell him you’ve been here?” I asked her.
She shook her head as she stepped outside, swiping at her wet face.
“I dare not. He’ll kick us all out of the castle and die there alone. The least I can do is go back and be with him until the end.”
She was being a bit dramatic, I thought, but then Kem had always been an emotional sort. And like the rest of his staff, she was loyal to Pharis. I felt the need to apologize again.
Reaching out to rub her arm, I said, “The Prince is going through a rough patch, but he will be all right. He always is.”
She sniffled. “Not this time, my lady.”
Both of us turned our heads at the sound of hooves thundering up the village road. Never agoodsound in my experience.
The travelers came into sight a moment later.
Stellon was at the front of the pack of riders, a platinum-haired woman riding beside him.
She looked familiar, though I couldn’t place her immediately.
Her clothing rang a bell in my memory though. She wore a long, red gown accented by a silver chain at her waist.
She was an Earthwife, the one who’d assisted Sorcha in the spell that had temporarily transformed me from lowly human peasant into a Fae noblewoman.
Caitriona.
Why wouldshebe here… with Stellon?
Kem grabbed my arm.
“Prince Pharis’ brother,” she said with alarm. “He’ll tell him I snuck out and visited you.”
“I wouldn’t worry about that. I don’t think they’re talking these days,” I said.
And I wasn’t sure what Stellon thoughtwestill had to talk about.
Maybe he didn’t mean to talk. Maybe he was here to drag me back to the palace by force as his father had done when he’d found me in Havendor.
When I’d first met Stellon and we’d gotten to know each other, I wouldn’t have thought him capable of such a thing. But after the way he’d acted the night of our wedding feast, anything was possible.
It wasn’t as if I could outrun an entire battalion, though, or even a single horse.
