He withdraws a fraction, his mouth quirking into a faint grin. “Perhaps from you, the name Kieran reminds me of all I’ve lost.”
His hand slides to my bare shoulder, and I recoil from the skin-to-skin contact. I shouldn’t let him be this close. If my curse courses through him here, I don’t know how I’ll stop either of us from giving in to my own desires. He’s always been my weakness, and even now, I can’t stop myself around him.
“Gen, I—” He stops, letting the words fade.
I look at him expectantly, but he doesn’t continue, leaving us suspended in silence. “What, Kieran?”
“Reconsider the wedding. Not because of me—but for yourself. Think about what you truly want.”
I shake my head. “You want me to beg for you? And yet now you’re the one who seems ready to beg.”
“You haunt me, Gen. I’m not myself around you, but none of that matters. What matters is that you need to do what’s going to make you happy.”
“Leland is a good man. He’s the best husband I can procure.”
He exhales in frustration, his strong hands tightening on my gown. “He’s a good man, but I’m afraid your gift will ruin both of you—and not in the way I intended.”
“Perhaps you’ll get just what you hope for, then,” I retort, trying to pull away. But he holds me close, frowning, still keeping us effortlessly in step with the music.
“You don’t even allow yourself one small happiness,” he murmurs. “You’re choosing to put a good man through a loveless marriage—and for what? To prove a point? To show that you’ll sacrifice everything for your country? Don’t you see that your country needs more than an advantageous marriage?”
It wasn’t easy to refuse Kieran in the dark of the garden last night, not when he asked me to give up this marriage. But now, hearing the same plea in public, I’m reminded just how high the stakes are for me to marry Prince Leland. Even though every fiber of me desperately wants to choose Kieran, the truth is that seeing my curse invade his senses—ruining everything that was once pure and true between us—would break me more than being forced to visit Leland’s bed.
Last night I saw how my curse would twist him into a possessive lover. When our touch lingered too long, he looked at me with such obsession that I realized there was no future for us. The love he once felt for me would become a sickness, and I couldn’t bear it, knowing what I felt was real while his was cursed.
“You don’t understand!” My tone is sharp, and for the first time, a pair of dancers glance our way, but I can’t stop as the words pour out. “I can never be with you. You’re a redblood, and I will never force my curse on you. I couldn’t live with it!”
I break away from him, pushing through the crowd—and see Leland staring at me. His face is shadowed, his expression hard enoughto send a chill down my spine. His sister whispers something in his ear, and he shakes his head before turning away and striding out the door.
He knows.
“Prince Leland! Wait!” I call, rushing after him.
26
Genevieve
Iwalk quickly through the crowd, waves of dancers and observers parting as I make my way out of the ballroom into the hallway. A small waiting room stands with its door ajar, and I peek inside. Leland is there, leaning against the wall. His eyes are brilliant ice, his brows furrowed. Seeing him like this hurts. I shouldn’t have agreed to dance with Kieran, not when I know how drawn I am to him.
Leland exhales sharply. “You’re not telling me something, I know it. There’s something between you and Blackwell.”
I almost shake my head, ready to deny it again—but Leland doesn’t deserve my lies. He doesn’t deserve the hurt I’m causing him.
“You’re right. He reminds me so much of a man from my past because he once was him.”
Lines crease Leland’s brow as he looks at me in confusion. “What do you mean he once was the man from your past?”
I sigh before letting the truth spill out. “We were friends as children, and later we fell in love. We were so young, and I knew I’d never beallowed to love him—he was a redblood gardener’s son. But I did. I loved him more deeply than I’ve ever loved another person. Then he left me, and I never understood why. Word reached me that he’d died, and shortly after, I turned twenty and received my gift. I think the loss of him caused it to manifest the way it did.”
He looks at me with little sympathy as he nods once. “And now? Do you still love him?”
I shake my head. “It’s not like that. I know we need this alliance, and I want to marry you. I believe he’s jealous, or maybe still hurting. He always knew I could never choose him. I just didn’t think he would still care all these years later.”
Leland’s voice snaps. “Blackwell knew who you were all this time. He’s used me to get to you.”
His jaw tightens, the coldness in his eyes cutting. It stings, but I’ve hurt this man—I deserve his contempt.
“Why would he encourage me to make an arrangement with you?” he finally asks. “He could have come here on his own for Blackwell Industries.”
