These internal battles wore me down.
How the fuck did he escape the compound? As far as I knew, nobody’d reported any issues. My fire wrapped around him and restrained him to a chair.
Pulling out my phone, I quickly checked for any messages. Nothing.
A few short rings after, the secretary answered my call. ‘What’s the situation down there?’
She gasped. ‘We were just about to call you, Your Majesty. One of our newest participants had been unaccounted for during the evening briefing.’
‘It would appear so, since he is currently seething at me,’ I barked, annoyed with their tardiness. They knew the drill. If anything like this happened, they needed to inform me.
Silence stretched on the other side of the call.
Doing my best to sound calm, in attempt not to freak her out even more, I asked, ‘How did he escape?’
‘We don’t know that yet. It’s being investigated.’ The woman’s voice broke, and I felt like shit. It wasn’t her fault. She had nothing to do with his escape and the fact that her leader didn’t let me know.
‘Have Max ring me in the morning; I want a report on what happened first thing.’
‘Of course, I will let him know.’
Pocketing the device, I focused on the situation at hand. We were never friends, but he used to belong to a battalion that often fought alongside mine. Now a wreck of the man I knew sat before me.
‘I know I need to go back. I just wanted to see them before I lost it.’
I didn’t have it in me to scold him. I probably would have done the same. ‘Why are you so beaten up?’
Tears spilled from his eyes. ‘I’m too far gone.’
Chapter Twenty-Three
Avari
Iwoke up with a plan to speak to River about the demented man who had tried to attack me last night. But as I joined him for breakfast, it became clear the intruder had only been a warning of something worse.
‘I’m being summoned by the Committee.’ The words echoed through the dining room, threatening to shatter the fragile sense of calm I’d found. River’s solemn expression said everything.
My thoughts drifted to the countless times his power had wrapped around us like a cocoon, shielding us from the world’s dangers. Was this the reason?
‘What is it about?’ Michael asked, his usual nonchalance gone, replaced by a vicious frown. I didn’t need to hear the answer to know.
The queen must have suspected I survived the curse; there could be no other explanation. She’d gone to the only ones capable of tearing me away without igniting a full-blown war, though I doubted she would mind one.
In truth, I suspected the scheming monarch would have struck at Fogoya long ago if something hadn’t restrained her. What that something was, I couldn’t tell. The silence pressed in on me until shivers ran down my spine at the mere mention of the Elders, while the frantic beat of my heart filled my ears.
‘Does she know?’ I forced the words out. ‘It’s my mother, isn’t it?’
‘I was expecting that call. The only uncertain thing is whether she knows you’re alive or not,’ River said, his tone attempting reassurance.
I knew the queen’s actions didn’t stem from care or concern but from possessive ownership. Bound to Ortensia by birth and imprisoned by the curse, I’d long since given up trying to escape.
Yet lately, I’d dared to dream that my life might turn out differently. That the fleeting fairy tale of roses, willow trees, and enchanted lakes could become my home.
To dream was to live, but for dreams to vanish was the cruellest way to die.
Silence lingered as the King of Fogoya stood, offering only a final glance, a gaze heavy with a million unsaid words and a fragile vow of my safety, one we both knew he could never truly keep.
Being used to distress, I still found it strange that my racing heartbeat wouldn’t settle as I awaited his return. Was I scared for myself or for him? I couldn’t tell. The storm of worry etched itself into my body so deeply that I suspected it had left a permanent scar.
