“Vaan,” I cursed under my breath. “I’ll call him.”
“And Kaan of House Arada wishes to arrange a meeting this evening.”
“Tell him no,” I said. I wasn’t ready to meet with Kaan. Truthfully, I didn’t know if I’d ever be, with Millie’s tear-streaked face still haunting my every waking moment and every sleepless night. I’d ended our relationship, cast away my fuckingkyranato marry into the House that controlleddravaproduction. And yet…I hadn’t made a marriage offer to Lyris.
The mere idea made me feel sick.
“I’ll inform him,” Vadyn said.
As he was turning to leaving, I called out gruffly, “I’m sorry, Vadyn. I know I’ve not been myself.”
“I know,” my head keeper replied. “But I’ll always be here, Kythel. For whatever you need.”
My chest tightened at the genuine words and the meaning behind them. I met Vadyn’s gaze across the room, inclining my head at the male who’d always felt more like family than a keeper to me.
“Thank you.” Then I hesitated. “Vadyn?”
“Yes?”
“How is she?”
He let out a sharp sigh, turning to face me. “She’s working on the cottage, day and night. Telaana went there yesterday to bring back whatever she had here at the keep, from your rooms and hers. Telaana was gone all night. She said they made dinner and just…kept one another’s company.”
I nodded, rubbing at the ache in my chest, one that wouldn’t leave.
“Good,” I said gruffly. I didn’t want Millie to be alone. She didn’t like to be alone. “That’s…good.”
“The credits were deposited into her account as you requested.”
My lips pressed together. Millie wouldn’t like what I’d done when she found out. “Thank you.”
“Anything else?”
“Not for now,” I answered.
Shortly after, once Vadyn had left, I took in a deep, steadying breath and called my father through the Halo Com. I stood when the full projection of his body illuminated the darkness of my office—every detail of him, from his wings to his horns, traced in perfectly colored pixels, becoming solid lines. So solid and real that it felt like my father had never left the Kaalium after my mother’s death.
“Thaine told me about your meeting with Zyre,” Thraan of House Kaalium said. No greeting. No warm regards. I couldn’t tell where my father was. Only his body was in view, not his surroundings.
“Did he?” I asked. There was resentment built up between us, only mine was tinged with the bitter taste of guilt. I was the peacemaker of our family…and once, our relationship had been solid. Not so much anymore.
I felt like he’d abandoned us when we’d all been riddled with grief. I would never forgive him for that. Just as he would never forgive me for what I’d done.
“Yes,” Thraan said.
He was a handsome, imposing, intimidating male. Large like a god statue in the gardens of Raazos in Laras. Even with his wings tucked behind his back, he still took up a substantial amount of space within my office, cast in perfect proportions by the Halo Com.
“Kaan of House Arada contacted me too.”
I stiffened, my nostrils flaring wide. “He didwhat?”
“I’m having a difficult time understanding why you have not yet made the bond announcement,” my father said, his tone even but firm. The same tone he used to take with us as children when we’d misbehaved.
My father had been a different person when our mother had been alive.Well, when she’d been healthy,I amended quietly.
“House Arada has been an ally of our family for years,” my father argued. “Make the tie and present your marriage offer to Lyris immediately.”
I bristled at the order, but I hid it well, smoothing my expression. My head was pounding with irritation, and my heart felt caged in, battering its way against the walls of adrava-encased prison.
