“I’m sorry. He wasn’t supposed to know. He overheard me telling Tink—”
“I know.” He faced me. “He knew. So did Tanner. So did Faye. Are there any more who are sworn to be loyal to me that knew you were carrying my child?”
“No. They weren’t supposed to know. I told Tink because I had to tell someone—”
“You should’ve toldme, Brighton.”
“I wanted to. I did. But I thought that if you knew, it would be harder for us to do the right thing—”
“Doing the right thing never should’ve included you keeping the fact that you were pregnant with my child from me.” His eyes weren’t cool then. They burned with anger. “I get what you were trying to do. Your desire to protect my Court and others is something that I love about you, but this is different.”
“How is it different?” I tried to sit up but found it was harder than expected. Caden snatched a pillow from the counter and shoved it behind my back. “Thank you.”
“That is our child, Brighton. Not just yours. Ours.” After ensuring that I was sitting up easily, he stepped back from the bed. “Andourchild should matter more than everything else. That’s why it’s different.”
“I agree, Caden, that’s why I needed you to choose a Queen because I didn’t want our child to grow up in a world that was being overrun by Winter fae,” I reasoned, trying to keep my voice calm.
“I chose you as my Queen.”
“But I didn’t know that!” The heart monitor beeped loudly, earning a dangerous look from Caden. I forced myself to calm down. “I didn’t know, and I planned to tell you tonight—”
“You mean last night. You’ve been out for almost twelve hours.”
“Oh,” I whispered.
He shoved a hand through his hair again. “This isn’t the time for this conversation. You need to take it easy—”
“I am taking it easy, and there is no other time we should be having this conversation. I’m sorry, Caden. You have to believe that. I wanted to tell you. If you don’t believe me, you can ask Tink. You can even ask Tanner. I wanted—”
“Then why didn’t you tell me the moment you realized we could be together?” he asked.
“I was just overcome. I knew I should have, but my head was all over the place,” I admitted. “I thought we had time.”
“You thought wrong,” he said, and my gaze flew to his. “If I had known, I could’ve stopped what happened.”
“How?” I asked. “How could you have stopped this? If someone wants me dead, whether or not I’m pregnant won’t change that. You said this flower or whatever would’ve most likely killed me if I hadn’t been given the Summer Kiss.”
“If I had known, I would’ve made sure you weren’t given something that could’ve killed our child.”
“How? Are you going to taste everything I eat and drink?”
“Fuck, yes!” he shouted. “I would taste everything that wasn’t prepared by my hands.”
“And if I wasn’t pregnant, you would’ve been like YOLO then? Let me drink whatever?”
His eyes narrowed. “It would’ve taken a lot more than that to kill you. And no, that doesn’t mean I wasn’t or wouldn’t be worried about someone targeting you, but at least I know that you wouldn’t be easy to kill. Our child is a whole different story.”
I dragged my hand over my face, realizing then that he was a hundred percent serious about tasting my food and drink. “I…I don’t know what to say other than I understand why you’re upset. I do. And I hope you understand why I didn’t say anything. But I’m sorry, Caden. I don’t know what to say to make this better.”
Jaw working, he looked away. “Neither do I.”
My chest squeezed. “What…what does that mean?”
“I don’t know. I really don’t,” he said, and my chest clenched. “If I hadn’t told you that you being with me wouldn’t be a risk, when were you going to tell me?”
“I planned on telling you as soon as you were married—”
“So, you were going to wait until I did what? Moved on from you? Picked a fae?” He took a step toward the bed. “Did you really believe that I would just choose to be with someone else when I knew that you love me? That I would’ve just walked away?”
