21
Sagan
“What’s wrong?” Myriam asked me after I drank the potion.
I frowned and studied the bottle. “I don’t know.” I licked my lips.
“Do you remember the taste or…”
I sighed. “I feel like I do the aftertaste, but honestly everything from that day is such a blur and it’s probably just my mind playing tricks on me.”
“Well, I got extras.” She shrugged when I couldn’t hide my surprise. “If anyone needs a night to tie one off and have fun sex—it’s you. Yeah, I got extras.”
“It’s illegal drugs, Myriam,” I hissed at her. “We need to know—you have them in my castle?”
Her eyes danced with mirth, but she slowly shook her head. “No, of course not. I was totally kidding.” She took the bottle from me with a snort. “I would never do such a thing.”
Fucking liar. Seriously, what a pain in my ass. Good thing she was worth it.
She laughed when she was in the hallway, so she probably knew exactly where my head was.
“Come in,” I said when there was a knock at the door about ten minutes later. I didn’t need to look up to see who itwas, keeping my focus on what I was doing. “Thanks for coming and doing this.”
Thorn was quiet for an awkward amount of time as he closed the door and stepped further into my childhood room. It wasn’t what most would think of as a princess’s room, definitely not the heir to a prosperous country like Thovudin… But I was rarely there, so what did it matter?
It had been my room since I was young and upgraded as needed. The bed was queen-size, with a loveseat and desk area for me to study when I was there. Nice attached bathroom, but it wasn’t what I could use when queen.
“‘Thanks for coming and doing this?’”
I swallowed a snort. “Did you want me to say thanks for coming and doing me?” He probably didn’t deserve my attitude, but… He probably did.
He hadn’t exactly tried to fix the situation and weirdness between us before he’d left, so I wasn’t really sure what he was expecting.
“What’s going on here?” he hedged.
“I’m reviewing the floor plans of the residence wing while waiting for the potion to kick in,” I answered evenly. “Also, I do want to address the accusation you made against my father. I’m sorry it won’t be as soon as you’d like, but it will take me time to go through—”
“That’s not what I’m talking about, Sagan.”
I raised my head and looked at him. “Well, it’s important tome. I had a lot of issues with my parents, but my father wasn’t someone to letotherssuffer because it was easier and he wasn’t a coward. On the contrary, he sacrificed a lot of himself to keep things going to benefit others. So I want the answer because it doesn’t make sense to me.”
I focused back on the floor plan and tried to ignore the tension coming off of him.
He was quiet for a few minutes. “What can I do to make that easier on you?”
My shoulders relaxed and I debated how to answer. “Proof of your correspondence—sorry, proof is harsh. Copies. I’m not doubting you—”
“You don’t think the requests got to him,” he mumbled.
“That’s one theory, yes. You can’t just email the king when you’re not even your uncle’s Beta. It’s against protocol. So I’m sorry, you yourself said not to trust your uncle, so my immediate reaction is he did something.”
“I’m sure he did, but I stood before your father and asked for him to set a meeting with me about the leadership of Starhaven,” he defended.
“Okay, when? I need to know dates and…” I sighed when he chuffed. “I believe you, Thorn. My father had a whole nation on his shoulders. He could have put it down to circle back to, and that was when the recession hit. Did he get a threat of war you weren’t even aware of? I’m trying to get you valid answers even if they might be excuses.”
He calmed down and cleared his throat. “Yeah, that’s fair. I want that answer. I didn’t…”
“I know, and I’m not judging you. I’ve felt the same about them too and trying to adjust as I’m learning more. It’s hard.” I turned the floor plan and then flipped to a different one. “I’m not saying you even have to forgive Father. I’m saying he wasn’t dismissive nor a lazy king. I can admit he fumbled and wasn’t perfect, but something doesn’t add up to me.”
