I frowned, dismissing that part of this for now. “You said someone who calls herself Brenna—excuse me,Layla—married the king? Then my younger brother stole her immediately after the wedding?”
“I did.” Zayde strode into the parlor holding hands with a woman with Tempest’s same eyes and hair color. Was this the king’s new wife? She was taller than Tempest, and her build a bit lusher, but the two womencouldbe sisters.
I love you,someone said in my mind.
“Fuck,” I bellowed, rising from the sofa and striding away from the infernal woman who insisted we were fated mates, who insisted we’d loved each other for months.
The others jolted and gaped at me.
Mind-to-mind communication was only possible with fated mates. We had the same symbol. She could invade my very thoughts.
Shewasmy fated mate, but I didn’t know her. Yes, I’d sought her almost from the moment I knew she existed. From about the time I was nineteen, I’d seen her as my salvation. But I wouldn’t be forced into feelings I didn’t have. The idea repulsed me.
Yetshedidn’t repulse me. Even dressed in simple leathers, a rough outfit I’d scorn if it was worn by any other, I couldn’t look away from her beauty.
Whenever she looked my way, shock coursed through my veins.
Her nearness hit me like a wild storm, shaking my body awake. She wasn’t just pretty; she was raw magnetism wrapped in flesh. My pulse pounded, and my chest tightened, lashed by a primal hunger I couldn’t deny.
I wanted to devour her with my senses, consume her until Icouldn’t tell where she left off and I began. This fierce desperation unhinged me; the air felt thick and suffocating. In that instant, nothing mattered but closing the distance separating us—an instinctive need clawing at my soul to possess this gorgeous being.
I fought it with everything inside me.
Watching my mother be sliced apart before my eyes had nearly severed my mind from the world around me. I’d been made to watch by a monster who knew no boundaries, a fiend who wouldn’t stop until he’d not only ground me into the stone beneath his boot but made me cry out in bitter surrender.
Yes, I’d dreamed of a future with the woman I knew as Brenna. Yes, I’d sought her from the time I realized what she could mean to me. But I couldn’t love her, and she should not love me, not as long as Ivenrail lived.
The thought of handing part of my soul to anyone made visceral fear bolt through me. I steeled my body to hold back its tremor. Having feelings for anyone would only lead to my downfall. I refused to hand a new weapon to the person I hated most.
Howhad I allowed myself to have feelings for this woman?
Because she looked like she was going to cry, and seeing this gutted me in a way I couldn’t describe, I returned to sit beside her, though I left the space of a thigh between us.
Don’t speak to me in my mind again,I said, my tone as gentle as I could make it. It was vital that I establish boundaries between us.
Her long pause was filled with her ragged breathing. Her hands clenched by her thighs, and her body quaked. “Alright.”
I knew she existed from the time I was small, back when her aunt flitted to my cold quarters inside the castle. She’d peered around for a long time while I sat on my bed and watched her. Striding close, she’d stopped beside my bed and studied me.
“Vexxion,” she’d said.
I’d only nodded. I didn’t know who she was then, but a spark of hope had burst inside me, a bitter, amazing thing I didn’t dare trust. When she stroked my forehead, that only reinforced my aching need for someone—anyone—to treat me with kindness.
“I can’t stay long,” she’d said.
And there it was. She’d abandon me there to suffer some more.
“I have to show you this.” She’d projected an image of a small girl with dark hair and green eyes before me.
“Who is it?” I’d asked.
“Her name is Brenna Lydel. Your mother and hers betrothed you when she was a child. Don’t tell anyone, or they’ll kill her.”
“Why?”
“Others have said . . .” She’d pinched her lips together.
I’d looked up at her. “Said what?”
