I lifted the spoon again, taking another slow sip of the soup, more to give myself time than because I wanted it. “What is relevant?” I asked. My voice felt worn now, the earlier edge gone from it, leaving something quieter in its place. “I’ve been patient,” I said. “I haven’t questioned you. That ends now. Tell me the fucking truth. Why have you been helping me? Why were you in the woods to begin with? What are you after?"
“The protector bond is…predecided,” he said.
I waited.
He didn’t continue.
"Finish it."
His jaw tightened. “It’s determined by bloodline. Among the Threns, it is always one of the royal bloodline.”
I didn’t move.
“I knew early on what I was meant for,” he continued. “I was born into it. There was never another outcome.”
His voice did not carry pride or reluctance. It was simply fact.
“But the heir of Alarna was missing,” he went on. “And because of that, there was no bond to form. No formal alliance between the Threns and Alarna.”
I drew in a breath, the pieces beginning to shift into place. “So Alarna has been neutral this whole time?—”
“Because they can,” he cut in.
I stared at him. This was too much at once. Too many pieces shifting too quickly.
“Because there is no bond forcing the alliance. Because many of them do not see the value in it. And because others have always preferred isolation.”
His attention moved past me then, as if he were seeing something far beyond the walls of the room. “Alarna has always trusted its wards,” he said. “They do not want to fight a war they do not have to.”
“And you?”
His attention shifts to me, just briefly. “I don’t have that luxury.”
The answer comes too fast, like he’s said it before.
He exhales quietly. “The country has become divided over it. Some still believe in the bond, since it means the wards finally loosen. Others would rather it never happens again.”
I frowned. “Why?”
“They like the isolation, the independence that it allows."
“Those that do not want it are called the Lights. They are the ones who are most likely to kill you. They will do anything to keep you from bonding with me."
They don't have to do anything, because I am not bonding with you,I think to myself.
"Both groups present a danger to Alarna's found princess."
I stared at him. “I am not an Alarnan princess.”
He looked at me then, something tightening in his expression.
“We both know that isn’t true,” he said quietly. “You are.”
My hand shifted slightly against the blanket without thinking.
I said nothing. Then, a thought occurred to me. "You are not the King of Veynar right now, so why do you wear a crown?"
"I was always a prince," he said. "My uncle formally adopted me after my mother's death." A pause. "Then, just before the war, he named me Prince Protectorate."
