“And I think Ben let himself be killed without a fight because of me.” Ethan hunches in on himself. “To keep me hidden until I came into my powers.”
“I’m so sorry,” I say in a broken whisper.
“Everyone who loved me ...” He holds his hands out, staring down at them in horror. Like he killed his family with his own hands.“Everyone I loved ... died because of me. Then I broughtyouinto this nightmare. You almost died because of me too.”
“That’s not true. It’snotbecause of you.” I shake my head vehemently. I thoughtIhad put him in danger when we were on the run, and the guilt had eaten away at me like acid. I can’t let him do that to himself. “Noneof this is your fault. You did none of this. Youchosenone of this.”
His gaze focuses on me again, and his bitter smile tells me he doesn’t believe me. With a sharp breath, he glances around the diner and changes the subject. “It was my birthday when I found you.”
“Oh.” Heat rushes to my face. Even considering the circumstances, I’m embarrassed I forgot his birthday. In my defense, I thought he was forever out of my life.
“Don’t worry,” he says with a ghost of a smile. “You’re paying for dinner.”
“Fair enough.” I smile back at him, then fidget restlessly in my seat. I still don’t understand some things. “That night, while I was walking to Roxy’s, something set me on edge, and I let my magic surface over a damn alley cat. It was stupid of me, but it was the barest whisper of magic. No one should’ve been able to trace it.”
Yet Ethan found me. The question is how? Yes, he’s the Prince of Mountains and is unimaginably powerful. But he found me before he broke the stone. So how did he find me without his magic? I worry my bottom lip, my brows drawing together. I know all of this is hard for him to talk about, but I need to understand.
“The jade disk still bound your magic, but it couldn’t contain all of your powers once you came of age—once your magic peaked,” I say, puzzling it out. “Maybe that’s how you traced my magic back to me. That’s how you were able to summon the axes to fight Blue, even though you weren’t strong enough to wield them yet.”
Ethan nods, his eyes never leaving my face.
“When you broke the stone, you unbound your powers,” I continue, even though he already knows all of this. “That’s why you weresuddenly able to wield the axes so fluidly in the cave. And that’s how you knew everything about the Shingae, even about the Realm of Four Kingdoms, when we met again at Heaven Lake.”
He nods again.
“Your head must be spinning,” I whisper. It’s too much. How can he bear it? “Your heart must be breaking.”
“Gods, Sunny.” He rakes a hand through his hair, his expression haunted. “So much blood was spilled because of me. All to protect me from ...”
I’m afraid to ask, but he needs to tell someone before he drowns in his torment. “From who?”
I flinch when Ethan meets my gaze. I see the dark fury and jagged violence inside him. In this moment, nothing remains of the kind, loyal man I’ve come to love. This male, the Prince of Mountains, is hard, ruthless, and implacable. Yet he doesn’t frighten me, because my Ethan is still somewhere inside.
“The King of Mountains.” The prince’s mouth twists into a mimicry of a smile. “Myfather.”
“But why?” I choke out.
“Because I am the King Foretold.” His bark of laughter is a sound of helpless sorrow, edged with rage. “Because of aprophecythat proclaimed I would be the one to unify the Realm of Four Kingdoms.”
“I don’t understand.” How could his own father ...
“My father feared it would mean the end of his precious reign as the King of Mountains,” the prince says with icy calm. “That male killed his wife—and would’ve killed his own child—to hold on to his power.”
Such a bloody legacy ... I want to hide my Ethan from its toxic grasp.
“Maybe you could ...” I bite my lip. He could what? Run away with me? If he forsakes his birthright, then the death of everyone he loved would’ve been for nothing. But the words refuse to die on my tongue. Because if he doesn’t go back to the Realm of Four Kingdoms,maybe we could be together. No matter how selfish that makes me, I can’t help wanting to hold on to him. “You don’t have to—”
“Here we are.” Rachel is all smiles as she places our food in front of us. “Now eat up, and I’ll bring the pie out when you’re done.”
“Thank you, Rachel.” Ethan pulls himself together quicker than I do. “Everything looks delicious.”
She blushes with pleasure, then she hurries over to another table. I watch her go, the thoughts in my head spinning too fast for me to grasp a single one.
“Eat.” He pushes my plate closer to me. My Ethan is back. “Rachel will have my ass if I don’t fatten you up.”
“I’m not a heifer,” I force myself to quip, because that’s what Ethan and I do. I want to hold on to this brief reprieve ... this moment of normalcy.
With a soft sigh, I slice dutifully into my steak. I pop the yolks of my sunny-side up eggs and scoop up the rich deliciousness with a slice of rare steak. I close my mouth around the perfect bite and moan, letting the familiarity of the food comfort me. And gods, I’m not gonna lie, it does me a world of good.
