“It was a training sword, Hel. He couldn’t have seriously hurt me with it.”
“Yet he did. He drew blood.” Annoyance edges his tone.
“It’s all right, it’s only a nick. I’m fine.”
“Is it, though? Is this really all right?” He turns towards me fully. “I don’t know why, Alaya, but lately I’ve started to question our lives here. You know there’s unrest with the workers? They’re being worked to the bone, some collapsing from exhaustion trying to keep up with King Malaxor’s demands.”
He casts a quick glance around us, checking we’re alone.
“Is this even a life? You’re being forced to marry that bastard Prince against your wishes, not given a choice for your future. You deserve so much more.”
“It could be a lot worse,” I reply without conviction. “What other options do we have? There’s nowhere else to go. The Corruption robbed us of everything.”
“So we just stay here, living half-lives under a King who treats us like disposable pieces in his game? He takes everything—our labour, our loyalty, our lives—and gives us nothing. You don’t believe we deserve more than this?”
Heller questions, his voice insistent, rising with each word. His eyes blaze with conviction, searching mine for any hintof understanding, any spark of the same righteous anger that clearly burns within him.
My words slip out defeated, barely more than a whisper. “What can we do?” My shoulders lift and fall—helpless, heavy. He’s asking me to solve the unsolvable, to answer questions I don’t even know how to begin thinking about.
“We could go, you know. You and I.” His voice drops lower. “I’d go with you whenever and wherever you wanted. Before you’re shackled tohimforever.”
I’m shocked by the turn this conversation has taken. I glance over at him, and my heart sinks. That look in his eyes is not what I need right now. Heller has always been my grounding, the one person I could talk to, who understood. It was easy and free, the complete opposite of the stifling control I must keep around the Thorn Court and the isolation I feel from the other Earthbound Fae.
That look he’s giving me—barely contained affection, so pure and sweet—joins the still-swirling emotions warring in my head over Prince Kiernan.
It shatters me.
I snatch my hand away; I can’t look at him, can’t confront the reality of what I see in those sparkling blue eyes and the hurt I know will be there because of my rejection.
“I can’t leave. You know I can’t,” I whisper, my voice almost inaudible.
“Why? What do you owe them? They barely tolerate you, treat you like a possession that can be used for their gain, and hurt you.” He touches the nick in my throat, his thumb stroking lightly.
It feels natural, and I lean into him, allowing myself to enjoy his touch.
Then I jerk away, remembering myself.
“You can’t do that, Hel. I’m to be married in two weeks.” I say, my voice a soft whisper. My hands tremble slightly as I speak, and I can feel my heart pounding in my chest. The weight of those words hangs heavy in the air between us. Two weeks. Fourteen days. That’s all the time I have left before everything changes forever.
“You’re still going to marry him?” he replies in disbelief, his voice rising at least an octave higher than normal.
“I have to. I have a duty to the Thorn Court, to an Oath my mother made to the King for my life.”
He jumps off the fence, placing his hands on the top bar on either side of me.
“That’s it then? You give up? Forget everything they’ve done to you and ride off into the sunset with your heroic Prince.” He radiates hurt and anger in waves, and it makes me mad.
“Don’t do this. Don’t ruin what we have.” My voice comes out hot as I slide off the fence. He doesn’t step away, instead keeping me within his arms in place, his hands gently dropping around my back.
“Choose me, Alaya. I may not be a Prince, but I would give you this kingdom—or whatever’s left of it—if you choose me. Us.”
I shrug out of his embrace and duck back under the fence, frustration flaring to a dull thumping in my head.
“I thought you were different, but you’re just like all of them. Trying to take pieces of me for your own. I don’t have anything else to give. I’m barely hanging on to what I have left of myself as it is. You ruined this, Hel—this one last place where I could be myself.”
I stride towards the castle with determination. He shouts my name, but I don’t turn.
I can’t.
