“Is it foolish,” she asked, “to believe a man could give himself to one woman all his days?”
“Amerei—”
“Or perhaps it’s crueler still. Prince Xavien thinks it nothing to cast off a wife when he’s done with her.”
“Viktor,” Storne said, shaking his head. His voice carried no hesitation. “Is not Xavien.”
He leaned back against the bookshelf, arms folding tight across his chest. The silence that followed was its own weight.
“Now—are you going to tell me what the bastard did?”
“Viktor didn’t do anything,” Amerei said at once.
But her hands knotted in her lap, and her gaze fixed anywhere but her father. She thought back to Viktor running off toward the apothecary. She didn’t say it aloud. She didn’t need to.
Storne sighed.
“That soldier who asked me for your hand this morning… that was a man who has waited his whole life to prove his loyalty to something he truly believes in.”
Amerei curled her legs into the chair, wrapping her arms around them.
“So he’s impervious to straying?”
Storne unwedged a book from the shelf and flipped it open, laughter rumbling faint beneath his breath.
“Temptation will come, yes. You are marrying a man, after all.”
He closed the book and settled beside her.
“But so long as his vow matters more than his desire, he’ll find the strength to overcome it. And that ishisburden, Amerei. Not yours.”
He caught her hand, thumb brushing across her knuckles.
“You may inspire him to be honorable. But you cannot force it.”
He bent, pressing his lips to her hand.
“Remember that, in all things.”
She turned her face away, voice fraying.
“I fear he’ll come to regret it. Regret… me.”
Storne leaned back, arms folding.
“Regret the crown that comes with you, perhaps. Rising from soldier to consort isn’t a small climb.”
His gaze held hers, steady.
“But regret you? No, Amerei. Not him.”
She buried her face against her arms. He was right. And still—it did not ease her.
He gently pried her hands apart, folding them into his.
“Viktor ismadfor you. And the fact you feel this helpless tells me you’re mad for him, too. Dask, I would give anything to go back to those days with your mother.”
She tried to look at him, but her eyes closed against the weight of it.
