The thought made my chest ache, and I scowled. I didn’t want to feel this way. I didn’t want to spend each night curled up in the bed she’d slept in, inhaling deep into the pillows and dreading the morning I’d wake up to find her room no longer smelling faintly of herbs.
I didn’t even like the smell.
Just missed it being around me.
“Mother and Father want to speak to you in the parlour room.” Elara’s voice tore me from my memories.
“Tell them to come to me,” I growled into a pillow.
“I’m not your messenger,” she huffed. “And besides,” a smirk pulled at her cheeks, “I think you’ll want to hear this sooner rather than later…”
Her tone forced my head up. “What are you scheming?”
“Come to the parlour room and you’ll see,” she giggled, drifting towards the door. “But maybe take a bath first. And brush your hair,” she teased. “Just because you’re still mad about that human, doesn’t mean you need to look it.”
The door clicked shut before I could wipe the smirk off her face with another flying scoop of frosted cream.
An hour later I found Elara perched beside her twin sister on a velvet chaise lounge in the grand parlour room. A huge willow-root fireplace spilled warm light onto the plush carpets and coffee tables, while the crackling of the fire was drowned out by the sounds of my sisters’ bickering.
“You’ve had that book a week now. It’s my turn!” Elara whined.
“But the prince has just ordered for her to be a maid in his castle!” Elsie thrust her nose deeper into the book’s pages. “I can’t stop now.”
Rolling my eyes, I opened my mouth to complain that Mother and Father were nowhere to be seen, when my gaze froze on something. Above the fireplace, surrounded by a huge quartz picture frame, hung a portrait of a certain blondehuman girl and me, locked in each other’s arms.
My heart ached as I studied the painting. We’d never posed for it, but still the artist had captured her likeness perfectly. The soft curves of her hips. The innocent deer-like stare in her eyes. But of course, even in the painting her gaze was not fixed upon me; instead, it searched somewhere else in the distance.
Accurate, I supposed.
“Darling!” Mother’s hands curled around my arms, pulling me back into a tight hug. I coughed at the force of it.
“Dear son.” My father crept up beside her as the guards pulled the doors shut behind them. “We’re so glad you could meet with us.”
“I haven’t seen you in days!” Mother panicked. “Your bedchamber is always empty. Where’ve you been hiding?”
“Naria’s room,” Elara spoke for me. I shuddered at the sound ofthatname.
Mother winced. “Oh dear…”
“I do not wish to speak of human girls,” I cut her off before she could go any further.
Shaking her head, she placed a hand on my shoulder. “That’s good,” she said weakly. “Because your father and I wish to discuss something important with you, but,” she glanced at Father, “maybe he is not ready?”
“What is it?” I pressed, my brow lowering.
Father gestured towards the burgundy chairs surrounding the fireplace. “Let’s all sit down first.”
Elara and Elsie let out a knowing giggle as the three of us joined them around the fire. I shot them a glare, but annoyingly for once their lips were sealed.
“My dear boy,” Father started once he’d taken his seat across from me in a tall armchair. “As you know your mother and I have held the throne for quite some time now, but as the years pass we are growing tired while you are of course growing more eligible.”
I met his gaze as my heart thundered.It cannot be…
Sighing, he continued, “And we think it may be time for us to consider passing down the crown to you while we are still young enough to enjoy our lives.”
I almost choked. “You are abdicating the throne?”
“Retiring, dear.” Mother grinned at my reaction. “But there is a condition…”
