The king seemed to grow into a demon before Matthias’s eyes.
“Why do you care where I’ve been? My well being has never been high on your priority list,” Matthias hissed at his father.
Bones snarled quietly beside the prince. Matthias held out his hand and gently hushed him. He couldn’t bear it if Bones was targeted for defending him.
The king growled, and the room felt as if it shook. “No son of mine would ever want to set foot in the Kingdom that banished his own father for all eternity. How do you live with yourself knowing that you conversed with that self-absorbed, manipulative being who has the guts to call himself a king?”
Matthias shook his head and laughed, but it wasn’t a joyous sound. “If you truly think I willingly stepped into that kingdom of my free will, you’re just as delusional as I thought.”
The king growled and lifted his hand to strike.
Reaching up, Matthias angled his forearm to block the blow before it landed on its target. His father took a step back in shock.
“You will never lay a hand on me again,” the dark prince growled.
Matthias could tell his father was struggling to piece together his son’s words and actions. “You do not know what I have been through in the last few weeks.”
“Wondered how long it would take for you to find your backbone,” the king sneered. “And now that you have, I can see you’re still just as pathetic with it. Now, why don’t you enlighten us then? . . tell me just how terrible it’s been for you.”
Ignoring the king’s baiting. Words tumbled from Matthias’s lips from a place he didn’t know existed as he wove a story for his father and the faces that watched him.
“I was lured into The Grey by the woman I set free. She promised me the freedom I was so desperate for. A life of peace and happiness. But I was sorely mistaken. She took me to the King of Lucius who was just as ruthless as you. They dragged me down into the cells of the palace. I was their prisoner, their prize, someone to jeer and laugh at. I only got away because some fool finally let their guard down. So don’t you dare come in here and accuse me of treason.” Matthias’s chest heaved.
Eyeing him warily, the king sneered. “Why didn’t you come straight to the palace when you escaped back into Oscuro, then?”
“I felt embarrassed. Me? . . . the son of a king tricked by a woman! How could I face you when I couldn’t even face myself?”
The king assessed him with cold-blue eyes as he spoke. “Let me tell you this, son . . . if I find out you’re lying to me, if you so much as step one foot into that kingdom again, I’ll make it my personal vendetta to seek out that bitch. I will make you watch as I have my way with her. Then I will saw her wings off and hang them up as a trophy in my throne room before peeling the skin from her body, layer by layer. She will scream. She will beg. I willensure she curses both our names with her dying breath and when that’s done, I will hunt down everyone she loves, and I will end their lives as well. Is that clear?”
Matthias’s world stopped. The king always followed through with threats . . . and this was one that endangered the very thing that brought Matthias hope. He stared his father down, but the prince struggled to find words to counteract his father’s forceful ones.
“Do you hear me, boy? Or do I have to show you with actions, so you understand?” the king taunted.
Matthias nodded, swallowing down the rage that was rose inside of him. He wanted to rip the smirk right off his evil face. He wanted to gouge his eyes out so they’d never look upon another soul. He wanted to cut his father’s tongue out of his mouth so that he couldn’t use his words as weapons again.
But that steady beat inside his chest kept his feet firmly planted. It seemed as if his father was willing to believe his son wouldn’t be so bold as to betray him.
For now, Matthias would bide his time until he knew his next move.
“I hear you loud and clear.”
Chapter Twenty
The time for trust
Abird landed in the small tree outside Adalia’s bedroom window and she softly smiled as it sang. A month of Matthias’s absence felt longer than it was.
The day she’d found his note, she wanted to go to him. To tell him she was sorry. To beg him to stay. She’d raced to The Grey, but it had been too late. He was gone. Tears escaped and made their way down to the earth, forever marking the spot where she realised that not only had the prince left, he’d also taken her heart with him. Adalia wanted to check his cabin, but she knew he would be furious if she did and she knew herself it would be too dangerous. He’d made his choice.
She knew he was going—but that didn’t lessen the pain anymore.
Shiloh said he’d accepted her gift with a little hesitation, but that she’d caught the ghost of a smile as he tucked it away. Adalia had been holding onto that thought for the last few weeks. A tiny sliver of hope that he would return to Lucius. Return to her.
Despite the stupid bounty.
Now, home seemed empty without the prince and Bones. Adalia smiled at the memory of the massive wolf that used to sleep at the back door in her courtyard. She’d never really been a dog person—she liked cats and birds—but in the days that Bones lazily dozed in the courtyard or on the floor by the fireplace at night, he’d really wiggled his way into her heart . . . just as his master had.
Adalia sighed. She’d rather stay in bed all day, but there were many items on her to-do list and none of them were going to happen by themselves.
