His eyes shut, as if the memory was still carved deep into his skin.
“I hid my title from you because I was willing to lose it if it meant you’d be more protected. The moment the Skell King thought you were dead—we had an advantage—time. A chance for you to start fresh. To live a life without shadows, without monsters.” His voice lowered. “But everything’schanged now. I was a fool to think I could shield you from all this bullshit.”
I placed my other hand on his forearm, gliding my thumb in an attempt to soothe him. His eyes searched mine.
“Carwynn, I’m so sorry,ma cherie.” His voice broke, a piece of my soul with it. “I never wanted you to live life looking over your shoulder. Never wanted to hurt you. Only ever keep you safe.”
Something in the air between us stirred impatiently, souls nudging one another to open up.
He briefly hesitated, looking torn.
“Carwynn, I’m—” Another moment of pause, then he looked away. “I need you to understand. Because of who I am and what’s happened, there are still things I can’t tell you. At least, not yet. Knowing them would put you in even more danger.” A sad truth painted over his face, wanting to be washed off.
He took a shaky breath in. “But I promise—I will try to be, no, Iwillbe more forthcoming with you from now on.”
An ember snuffed out at the disappointment that sunk in, knowing there were still things he wouldn’t say. But seeing the profound remorse in his eyes slowly diffused my anger. His hand tightened around mine, as if he’d lose me if I let go. It was a pleading gesture.
And it hurt . . . knowing he was hurting too. But that was so typicallyus. Sometimes I wondered if he projected his ability without meaning to because more often than not, our feelings seemed to intertwine. I suppose we wereSoul Connected,as they called it.
So I squeezed his hand tightly back. When I leaned in, his arms came up to wrap around me, cocooning me from the world.
I should’ve told him about the strange vine magic I’dconjured, how the monster implied he’d beensent. But I felt the gut-wrenching weight that loomed over David tonight. I wasn’t going to add any more to it.
Maybe now, I understood a little bit better why people kept secrets.
14
DAVID
LOVELAND—THE PAST
Hopelessness tightenedaround David’s throat like a noose. His eyes stung, holding back the force of his own emotions.
He was frozen in deep thought, desperately trying to cling to some sliver of hope.
The silence settled around him with the weight of a thousand lives. He stood in the room his father left him in, staring out the glass windows toward Lovelorn Mountain. Their conversation rang over and over in his mind like the echo of a war horn.
“For Souls’Sake, David!” The Lord of Loveland immediately rose, chair violently scraping back, wings splaying wide. “What do you think you’re doing? You can’t just barge in like this!”
David turned to the two other individuals in the room. Recognizably, his father’s advisors.
“Forgive me for my intrusion,” David said, ice prickling each word. “But it’s imperative I speak with my father.Alone.”
The two advisors exchanged a wary glance. Then bowed their heads toward the Lord and hurried out.
His father stared at him in utter disbelief.
“You’ve got some n—” he began.
“Nerve?” David cut in furiously. “I could say the same! Your chancellor informed me thatmy request”—Fingers sarcastically quoted midair—“to grant asylum to the Hallow Land Queen has been denied! I think there may have been some miscommunication. It wasn’t a request.”
David held his father’s gaze with a look of steel.
It had been several agonizing months since he’d last seen Maura. Months of not knowing what cruelties she’d have faced alone…what fragile state her mind or body were in now.
When she’d told him she was pregnant, it felt like the air had been ripped out of his lungs. Her hands trembled, wearing her mask of strength. He knew she was terrified. Beyond terrified, and there were no words he could say that would comfort.
Maura had refused every plan David came up with to get her out. She was adamant that this was the only way, that it was her fate.
