“I love you, Elaria,” Verin's voice grated, sounding as if it cut him on the way out. His eyes bled pain.
“But you can't be with me,” I concluded.
“I have behaved dishonorably.” Verin swallowed roughly, his face twitching with guilt. “I took you from your husbands. I forced myself upon you.” He lifted his stare to the sky and shook his head. His breath came brokenly and his eyes went glassy with tears he refused to let fall. He looked back at me and his gaze skimmed my face as if memorizing it. “I will treasure the time we had together.”
“It was the spell,” I said gently. “It wasn't you. You can't blame yourself for what you did. And you never forced me to do anything, Verin. I was with you willingly all the way.”
“I appreciate you saying that,” he said crisply, already retreating behind a mask of stoicism, and helped me to my feet. “But spell or not, they were my actions and I'm responsible for them.”
“We do not hold you responsible,” Darcraxis said, surprising us all, especially Verin.
Verin let me go, his hands trembling as they slid away from me. He turned to Darc and held out his hand—steady once more. “Thank you for your understanding. Still, I offer my deepest and most humble apologies.”
Darc shook Verin's hand with a deep sigh. “Verin, you saved Elaria at great risk to yourself and then suffered for it. None of this is on your shoulders. It is we who should be apologizing to you. We should have been more understanding throughout this ordeal. You were a victim along with Elaria but we treated you as a villain. Please, accept my apology.”
Verin blinked, straightened, then nodded.
“Thank you,” Darc said, then glanced at me. “Does this perhaps change things?”
Verin looked back at me and as he stared, his eyes cooled to icy blue. “No.”
“Verin!” I snapped and strode over to him. “Are you seriously going to walk awaynow? You tell me you love me and then leave?”
“Our love was born in battle, Elaria,” Verin said softly. “We knew from the beginning that we wouldn't work. We should have stayed away from each other but magic forced us to love each other. Yes, that lie became truth—I admit that. I saw the real you and you saw me and we loved what we saw. You are an amazing woman and what we have is more than I'd hoped to find with anyone. But it's tainted by the violence of its birth.”
“That's foolishness,” I scoffed. “It is what we make of it. You can decide to take the good that's come of this or you can wallow in the bad. You were the one who told me that there's no greater glory than a love born in battle. Now, you use it as a reason to walk away?”
“I don't want to walk away.” Verin smiled softly and stroked my cheek. “I would like to hold onto the good with you. I wish that I could do that. But the bad continues to fester. You call this a family and I see that, but my people will not. A Dragon King cannot be a part of a woman's harem, no matter how wonderful that woman may be.”
“You're the King, you can do whatever you want,” I argued. “Your mother even supports us.”
“You don't understand.” He shook his head. “We have a saying: a child born in battle will fight their entire life. The same will be true for our love. I will have to fight for us forever and I would do that for you, Elaria,I would. In that, I'd find the glory I spoke of. But I wasn't thinking straight. I didn't realize that this battle would be against my people. Honor forbids me from harming them. I'm their king, I must put their wellbeing first. Even above my own. That is the price of a crown.”
“I understand,” I shoved the words out.
“Do you?” He whispered and swallowed visibly. “Do you understand how much this will cost me? How much—” His breath caught and he started again, “How much it's tearing me apart?”
“Yes, Verin, I do. You're forcing me to pay the same price.”
Verin closed his eyes in agony.
I kissed Verin's cheek, then let him go. He had made his decision and I had tried to change it. I had failed but I wouldn't keep fighting when that was clearly not what he wanted. Especially not when the men I loved and who I'd hurt were standing nearby. Let Verin wallow if that's what he wanted. He could cling to his honor at night but I would always choose love, even if that love demanded a high price.
Born in battle? Yeah, I could say that about most of the love in my life but I didn't have a problem fighting for any of it, even if it meant fighting my own people. Because those men mattered more to me than honor or even entire kingdoms. I'd burn my kingdom to the ground to save my men. I saw glory in that, glory that Verin had once seen too, but it seems that was the spell talking. The same spell that had compelled me to cling to Verin and hurt the men I loved. Well, it was broken now, and I wouldn't wait another second to fix the damage it had caused.
I turned away from Verin, ignoring the pain that bloomed in my chest with that single action. As soon as I started toward my husbands and fiancé, they rushed forward to meet me halfway. I was surrounded in seconds by relieved men—hugging, kissing, and stroking me tenderly. The pain of Verin's rejection softened under their loving hands.
“I'm so sorry,” I murmured as I moved away from Declan's kiss and into Gage's.
“Shh,” Torin smoothed my hair as I kissed Gage. “It wasn't you, little bird.”
“I'm still sorry.” I turned into Torin's embrace.
“Then you're forgiven. Now, forget it,” Torin said firmly, then nudged me in Banning's direction.
Banning just held me tightly and buried his face in my hair.
I stroked his back and murmured, “I'm so sorry, Banning.”
