Her heart was beating a powerful rhythm, and the words echoing in her head were making it ache.
The car pulled up to the front of the palace, and they were ushered outside the vehicle. Andrei attached to her like a shadow at her back.
The doors to the palace opened, and they were brought inside, into a stark, black antechamber.
“The king awaits in the throne room.”
A throne room? They didn’t have anything half so prosaic. Onyx had a study where he conducted correspondence, and there was a sitting room where he entertained people. He didn’t sit on an actual throne.
But it was clear to her that King Lucian really was stuck in the Dark Ages, just as the rumors said. The double doors to the throne room opened, and she stepped slowly inside, feeling like it was entirely possible that movement might release axes from the ceiling that were waiting to swing across the walkway and cut her to pieces.
She looked ahead and saw a figure sitting on a large, iron throne. Blond, his skin damaged on one side, perfect on the other, his eyes crystal blue, piercing through her from the great distance between them.
Whatever they’d said about his looks…they had underplayed it.
He was, in part, the most beautiful man she’d ever seen.
But where he was scarred, that beauty was ravaged.
“Princess Emerald,” he said, his voice low, his accent indefinable. “Welcome to Alabria.”
“Thank you,” she said. “Your Highness.”
She didn’t genuflect because she felt that it would set a bad precedent.
“Let me see you.”
He didn’t move, he only sat there waiting for her to approach him. The way he looked at her made her feel like he was looking into her. “You are as beautiful as it is rumored.”
“Thank you.”
“You don’t have to return the compliment,” he said, smiling, the scars on the right side of his face twisting garishly as he did. “I don’t like lies.”
She had nothing but lies to offer him, and it had nothing to do with his beauty. Because she might have signed this agreement, she might make vows to him, but she would never truly belong to him. She would always be Andrei’s.
“You will spend the next month becoming familiar with the palace, our customs and my expectations. Then in four weeks’ time, we will have a ball and a wedding. And our nations will be united.”
“Of course your plan is best, Your Highness,” she said.
She knew that it didn’t seem honest. She could also tell that he didn’t care.
She didn’t know what to expect. She had thought that maybe he would want to spend some time together, but clearly he didn’t. He waved his hand. “Show the princess to her room.”
“And what about my bodyguard?”
He looked past her, at Andrei, as though he was seeing him for the first time. “The staff will find quarters for him.”
“He has to be near to me.”
He lifted an eyebrow. “Unusual.”
“Is it unusual for royalty to travel with her own trusted protection to a country she’s never been to before?”
“You demonstrate a lack of trust in me.” He smiled, slowly. “Smart.”
“A room. Near mine.”
She could tell that it was costing Andrei to be silent. He was not her staff, he was so much more than that. He was a leader, through and through, and to be put in a position where another man held power like this was likely offensive to him.
