I gripped his shoulders and looked him in the eyes. “You can do nothing to stop it. Just…hold on to the truth that we will both be alive in the end.”
His brow hardened. “My immortality is not a consolation gift for your unhappiness.”
I bit my tongue and glared at him, keeping my thoughts as quiet as possible in case he could hear them. The bargain was set, the last thing he should do is make me feel guilty about it.
I shoved out of his arms and walked across the lilies to where we had thrown my chemise. I slipped the chemise over my body and caught Riyan’s eyes as he looked at me from across the meadow.
The gentle breeze ruffled his golden hair across his back. “It’s okay to be scared, sweetheart. I…I’m scared too.” His shoulders dipped forward as he looked at the lilies. “Not because the army is coming, I just…I don’t want to see my father again.”
The sound of a wave breaking on a rocky beach crashed through my mind. The diamond in my heart lit up.
Riyan was tugging on our bond. Despite the distance between us, I could not ignore the call for help.
I carefully stepped across the lilies and placed my hand on his shoulder. “Your father might be a monster, but that does not make you any less of a man.”
His brow stayed hard but his lip twitched. He had looked the same way when he wanted to talk about his failed battle with the giants, but somehow could not bring himself to. I bent at thewaist and kissed his temple, sending a little white flame of truth through his skin to give him the bravery to talk.
Riyan’s throat bobbed as he swallowed. “He was tougher on me than anyone else. His command was the beginning and the end of my world. When he told me to fuck someone up, I justdid it.Didn’t matter if it was a piece of shit who murdered three women or...”
His voice broke. “…or Evereon Mydina for defying an order to fight me.”
I wrapped my arms around his shoulders and tried not to think about that jagged line that split Evereon’s face in two.
He took a long, deep breath. “I was only ten years old when I did it. Even after he was screaming and holding those bloody flaps of skin against his skull, I didn’t feel bad. My General gave me an order and I wanted to make him proud.”
I rested my chin on top of Riyan’s head. Of all the rumors I had heard about the forsaken Mydina heir, none of them painted a picture of someone who refused to harm a child.
He was a better man than I gave him credit for.
“Let Evereon Mydina keep the House pins,” Riyan said. “Let him rule the North. I owe him that much.”
I let out a soft breath. “He does not want it, Riyan. He cannot have heirs.”
“Then who should it be?” He twisted out of my hold to look up at me. “You said you can’t have it because of your bargain and I sure as hell don’t want to be Baron!”
His hair fell in his face and he angrily raked it back. “If I stay a Bloodstone, I have to face that I destroyed every member of my House. If I claim my Hyton blood, showing the whole Dukedom that I’m his son…”
He shook his head only slightly and then his eyes met mine. “I have to face that I want it. He’s the only family I have left other than you and…”
I gritted my teeth to keep my lip from quivering. He did not need to finish his thought, I felt it, Iunderstoodit. His desire to be sheltered in Hyton Blue was different than mine, but it was still just as strong.
Where I had wanted power and security, Riyan just wanted a family.
Just as the monster inside Derrick was larger than any giant, so was Riyan’s father in his own mind.
And just like Alastar, the General would be near impossible to overcome.
Strands of Riyan’s hair fell into his face again and he tucked them behind his ear with a scowl. “Everything just feels so wrong, even my damn hair. General Hyton would always shear it every two weeks—”
I walked around to his back before he could say anything more and began combing through the tangles in his long golden hair with my fingers.
We only had one sunrise left, but I was making him something he could have even when we were apart. If I was not going to get a happy ending like in a faerie story, I could at least give Riyan one.
I pulled the pins and leather wraps out of my own hair and worked them into Riyan’s, braiding back the front strands so they would stay out of his face.
“I told you before that I don’t need to look pretty,” Riyan said with a laugh.
I stuck my tongue out at him but kept braiding. When I finished, I ran my fingers through the ends of the shining golden hair that flowed freely down his back. “There! Just like Prince Haldar.”
