She wanted to be like her mother. She wanted to do something that mattered. Wanted to unite the nations. She had the opportunity to do that on an even grander scale.
It was her purpose.
What she knew about life was that it could be short and cruel. Even if she did meet her fate at the hands of King Lucian, she would’ve tried. Would’ve tried for a legacy that was bigger than herself.
The need to be her mother’s daughter in this way was an almost desperate drive inside her. She’d lost her so long ago. This felt like finding a connection to her.
I’m the woman you would have raised me to be. If you had lived.
She heard heavy footsteps behind her, and she didn’t even have to turn to know who it was. Her brother walked on top of the floor. He was silent. Years of royal training had turned him into an elegant panther. Dangerous, certainly, to some, but smooth. Andrei did not bother to conceal his presence, ever. He was a blunt instrument. A weapon. And he wore that proudly.
“You are making a mistake,” he said.
She turned around, trying to steel herself for the impact of him. Even though she had just been looking at him, she knew that he would make her heart beat faster now that they were alone. Now that he was closer. She turned, and she was right. Her heart leapt into her throat like it was trying to escape. “That’s not for you to decide.”
“Perhaps not, but I’m telling you all the same.”
“I am a princess,” she said. “And you are nothing. You would do well to remember that.” She immediately regretted those words the moment they came out of her mouth. She didn’t mean them. But she was angry. Angry at these men for undermining her. Angry at Andrei for making her feel things that were so at odds with what she knew she needed to do.
It was the worst of both worlds. Not only was her plan being hijacked by the most controlling men she knew, but she wasn’t getting the reprieve from Andrei she desperately needed.
She didn’t look at him again. She refused.
She was going to prepare herself for the sea voyage to Alabria. King Lucian did not allow flights in or out of the country, unless they were his own. Everyone, including the citizens of the country, had to travel elsewhere by boat if they wished to fly somewhere. It had always been rumored that it was a show of strength. A way that Lucian let everyone know that in his country he even owned the sky.
She didn’t care what it was. She wondered if the ship’s journey would deter Andrei.
That made her feel guilty too. But she didn’t ask, and she didn’t look back.
She had made her decision. Whether her brother and Andrei supported her or not didn’t matter. She was selling herself into marriage.
It was a choice that only she could make. And she had made it.
“You could forbid her to go.” Andrei was leaning against the doorframe, rage churning in his stomach.
Emerald was being a fool. Very unlike her. She was the most devoted, levelheaded person he knew apart from Onyx. This was a rare miscalculation on her part, but it was one.
King Lucian was a monster. The very idea of that man laying claim to her…
He could not bear it.
“Certainly, I could. And then what? Lock her in the dungeon? You have met my sister. She is the smartest person I know. Smarter than the two of us combined when it comes to matters of negotiation and the economy. The trouble is, it is a very good deal that she’s brokered.”
“Fuck the deal,” Andrei said. “What does it matter? If her safety is compromised…”
“She is also right about the fact that it has never been confirmed he is responsible for the deaths of his previous wives.”
“They’re also all dead,” Andrei growled. “So they can hardly testify.”
Emerald was the most precious thing in his world. He would kill for her. Die for her. Whatever was required of him. His devotion to her was complete.
He had cared for her, looked after her from the time she was young. This family meant everything to him. When he’d been taken into the palace he’d seen love for the first time. Real love that wasn’t filled with trip wires and toxicity. Unconditional, beautiful love like they wrote about in stories and songs.
He’d loved his parents, because he knew nothing else. He’d loved his parents because he didn’t know children shouldn’t see violence—passionate or otherwise. He didn’t know a father shouldn’t strike his son, or expose him to the dark, twisted dealings of a criminal empire. His father had often showered him with praise, and that had made up for the times when being in his father’s sphere was hard.
His own concept of love, of family, was so perverted that he’d been completely undone by the purity of the royal family.
It had changed something inside him, and he’d sworn an oath in his own soul to protect this family with everything he was.
