Theodore sipped his wine, quietly livid. “I thought you were Queen Imogen’s guard now. Tell me why you’re as quick to abandon your service to her as you were me.”
Lachlan was unbothered. “Because I won’t leave my wife in the first week of our binding,” he said simply. “As is customary.”
Agatha froze for a moment, then, as if it couldn’t be contained, let a beaming smile break across her face.
The a great weight seemed to press in around me, crushing, squeezing. I should feel nothing but elation, nothing but relief for them both. I shoved my chair violently back from the table and rose. “I’m so happy for you,” I said, breathless. I looked around the table, avoiding Theodore’s gaze. “A retinue of armed sailors will do. Thank you.”
I smoothed my hand over the amber-colored silk of my bodice and started toward the stateroom door. “Good night.”
“You’ll remain,” Theodore commanded, blandly, as he watched his cupbearer refill his wine.
“No, I will—”
“I implore you,” he said, green eyes searching mine. “The rest of you may go.”
Gods damn him.The pain was worse like this, clinging to one another as every force in the world tried to rip us apart. We might find some cursed solace in finally letting go.
Markis and Aleka rose quickly, bowed, and left. Halla let her bread fall to her plate, her long fingers snapping away crumbs as she glared at me.
I cleared my throat. “We can speak in the morning, Your Majesty.”
Theodore leaned back in his chair. “I said stay.”
Agatha and Lachlan made for the door while I gripped the edge of the settee, brimming with anger. Agatha gave my arm a soothing pat as I stood there and watched Halla go to Theodore’s side. She curtsied, then leaned toward his ear to whisper. The hot seep of power in my middle began before I even realized. It spilled through me in a roiling cascade as I watched Theodore tense. Halla set a quick kiss to his cheekbone and rushed from the room with her handmaid following.
Only we were left.
I wished there were some tidy phrase that I could administer, like an antidote to a certain poison, that would ease this, but as we drew nearer to Obelia, the hopelessness of it all had begun to throttle the both of us. Theodore dragged a hand down his face, and I could no longer stomach the quiet.
“You shouldn’t do that,” I scolded.
Theodore looked at me with hard eyes. “Do what?”
“Order an entire room of your advisors to leave so that we can be alone. It’s dangerous.”
He shook his head, a dark laugh shaking his chest.
“You’re being heedless and arrogant, Theo. It’s bound to catch up—”
“Oh, I agree with you.” He took a swill.
“Well. Good…” I crossed my arms over my chest, feeling disarmed. “Speak quickly about what you wanted so that your wife can return and—”
“Imogen.”
The feeling in his voice immobilized me. I watched as he strode around to the far side of his bed and bent to retrieve something. When he straightened, a rusted cage with a black rat sitting behind its bars hung from his fist.
My jaw dropped in disbelief. “Oh my fuckingGods.Not again. Have you seen yourself?” I balled my hands to tight fists. “You look like hell, Theo. You cannot try the spell again.”
He strode toward me as valiant and determined as a knight and set the cage on the table with such force that the rat within gave a scream. “I’ll try it without you, then.”
I lunged for the cage, but he was quicker than I was, snatching it back behind him. I tore at my hair. “Theo, it’s done.” My arms fell to my side, hopeless. “We tried and the spell didn’t take. We need to accept it and move on to the next-best plan.”
“Gods damn you, Imogen. The next-best plan is you making a martyr of yourself.” He set the cage down once more and pressed his palms into his eyes.
It felt like a hand clamped around my throat and squeezed. “Your wife waits to return here so you canperform your dutyand you—”
“Stop it.” His broad chest heaved. “We tried to sever this. We’ve tried to do what is right and honor our crowns and I have notpulled in a painless breath since.” He inclined his head, as if begging. “Guide me once more, Imogen.Thiscannot be my fate—to miss you for the rest of my miserably long life. Give me the hope of some Godsdamned relief.”
