He continued to stare at me like he expected something, some kind of acknowledgment.
“Okay.” That was the best I could do, and I could barely look him in the eye as I said it.
“Now I want to ask you something.”
I felt a flush in my cheeks. I should have known there wouldn’t be give without take.
“You said you’ve never been with anyone—but you were married.” It wasn’t phrased as a question, more of an accusation.
I didn’t want to speak of that man. Didn’t want to even mention intimacy that never happened. “Vulgaris is much older than me. Neither one of us was interested in that kind of contact, so it never happened. We resided in different bedchambers on different sides of the castle.”
“Then why did you marry him?”
“Because…” Because I was a fool. Because I was an embarrassment to my family name. “Because I was told it wasthe only way to keep the crown…and I lost it anyway.” I chose power over love—and I got what I deserved.
His earthy stare continued, absorbing my expression and emotions like a sponge. “I’m sorry for everything you’ve endured.” He spoke quietly but with a voice packed with sincerity. His eyes showed it too, like he could understand what had happened without being there.
It made me want to cry because I didn’t have anyone to confide in. Every decision had to be made without advice from my parents or a relative. And then I’d watched Vulgaris dismantle my power and take the kingdom for himself, and there hadn’t been a damn thing I could do about it. All I could do was cry in my room and curse my parents for being gone when I needed them most. Curse myself for being so pathetically stupid. I’d never had a single person to share any of this with, not someone who actually cared, at least.
His arms moved to the table, and he leaned forward slightly.
My breaths had increased, the pain burned behind my eyes, but I refused to let that emotion show, not in a sea of people who still distrusted me.
But Morco could see it.
He subtly extended his palm to me, face up on the table, his eyes still on me.
I sucked in a harsh breath at the gesture, the affection making my symptoms worse.
He waited for me to place my hand in his, his eyes gentle and not coercive.
I finally moved my hand to his, my fingertips touching the inside of his palm, the searing heat the first thing I noticed. I looked at the lines across his palm, the calluses on his fingertips from labor and gripping his sword. I rested my fingers there and breathed, and then I watched his fingers envelop mine the way flower petals enveloped their nectar in the cold.
Instead of a masculine squeeze, he gently touched me, like I was a bee that had landed on his petal. “You aren’t alone—as I’ve also endured much.”
7
MORCO
I left without saying goodbye to my mother.
I needed space—and she probably did too.
The four of us rowed across the dark lake and reached the other bank. Then, by the light of the torches, we made our way around the lake and headed back to the forest that had what we sought.
Ever since Hanne had shared her knowledge of poison and sedatives, my mind had run amok with ideas. Our response after being eviscerated by the Knives had been to flee and hide. While that was a good solution at the time, decades had passed, and this existence was hardly worth living.
We needed to fight.
Caius walked beside me as I held the torch, Hanne and Liam in the rear.
“What do you think a bow and arrow is?” Caius asked.
“I don’t know,” I said. “But when we get back, we’ll ask her to demonstrate what she means.”
“It makes you wonder what else she knows,” he said. “Useful things…”
“I agree.”
