“It doesn’t,” she said.
King Varian gave a faint, rare smile. “That remains to be seen. We don’t always get to choose who we marry.” He rose to his feet, signaling the end of the meeting. “Go to the Queen. Then prepare to ride. I’ll send you my Vanguard. Whatever storm is coming, face it in the sky.”
Thaelyn bowed. As she left the chamber, Thaelyn’s hand brushed Thorne’s. Fear did not fill her. Instead, it was fire. Whatever Kaen thought he could claim, she hoped it would never come to pass.
The fire in the hearth burned low, casting long shadows across the stone walls. Thaelyn’s footsteps had faded down the corridor, her presence still lingering in the room like a storm about to break.
Thorne remained. He hadn’t moved from where he stood nearthe center of the council chamber, boots planted, shoulders stiff with restraint. The stone table sat between him and his father, its surface still warm from the meeting that had just ended.
King Varian stood behind his chair, hands resting on its high back. He hadn’t spoken since Thaelyn left, though the quiet had grown heavier by the second.
When Thorne finally did speak, it was with a voice stripped of ceremony, quiet, sharp-edged, and deliberate. “Don’t make any decisions about Thaelyn’s fate,” he said. “Not yet. Not without me.”
The King’s brows lifted slightly. “You presume too much. I will do as I see fit and do what is right for the realm.”
Thorne’s mouth tightened. “I’ve earned the right.”
Varian said nothing; the silence between them was brittle.
Thorne stepped closer, the tension in his jaw visible beneath the firelight. “I’ve sacrificed for you. For Kaen. For this throne. My whole life has been shaped by things I never asked for or wanted. Full of orders that I never questioned.”
Still, the King was silent, though something flickered behind his eyes.
“You beat discipline into me when I was too young to hold a sword,” Thorne continued, voice low, even. “You called it strength. You called it forging. But I was thirteen when you made me fight adult soldiers in the pit. I was fourteen when you stopped sending healers after those matches.”
“That training kept you alive. You had to learn to fight through pain, and healers are not always on the battlefields,” the King said at last.
Thorne’s laugh came sharp and bitter. “Did it? Or did it just break me quietly so I wouldn’t become a threat to your plans or heir?”
Varian’s gaze snapped to his son, hardening. “You think I saw you as a threat?”
“No,” Thorne said. “I think you never wanted me. You have always treated me differently from Kaen.”
That silenced the King more effectively than any blade could.
Thorne didn’t stop. The words had been dammed up for years,and now they poured without restraint. “You trained me to die well, not to live freely. I was born second, so my life was never mine to have. I was made into a weapon to protect Kaen. Everything I did, everything I bled for, was in his shadow. You never saw me as your son. Only as his shield.” He stepped forward again, the firelight catching the scar that cut across his collarbone. “I never complained. Never said it. I took it like a man, as you taught me. But I’m saying it now.”
King Varian’s jaw tightened. “You think this is the time for sentiment? While dark magic attacks throughout our realm?”
“I think this is the only time it matters,” Thorne snapped. “Because you’re making choices for Thaelyn that you have no right to make, not when something ancient and sacred bonded her and is happening between us.”
The King stilled. His fingers curled slightly against the carved stone of the chair.
Thorne inhaled once. “I believe the Prime Bond is awakening.”
Varian’s eyes narrowed. “You’re certain?”
“I’ve felt her storm ripple beneath my skin. I hear her thoughts without trying. She hears mine.” His voice dropped, raw now. “She steadies me. I would burn the world down for her. I would burn down kingdoms before letting harm touch her.”
The King studied his son for a long, quiet moment. Then, slowly, he walked around the chair and approached, each step echoing across the stone floor. “You believe you’re in love with this girl?” Varian asked.
“I don’t know what it is,” Thorne admitted. “But it’s beyond need. Beyond want. It’sknowing. It’s the dragons. It’s something older than both of us.”
Varian stopped a pace away. His eyes searched Thorne’s face.
“She is dangerous with all that untrained power.”
“She’s necessary for the realm’s future.”
