The Inadequate Heir (The Bridge Kingdom Book 3)

by Danielle L. Jensen

“But she’s Valcottan!” “And I am the Crown Prince of Maridrina.” Through the waves of pain she heard the faint edge of panic in his voice, and it twisted at her heart. “You will do what I say!”

your life matters infinitely more to me than his death.”

“I can’t help but wonder if there’s much lower you can go, boy.” “One can always go lower.”

“Someone has to take the blame, and I won’t let it be him.” The old harem wife shoved at her. “Tell Keris I love him.”

The thought weighed on her mind, making her understand why her aunt kept the world at arm’s length. How could one do anything else when one was constantly forced to put the good of the Empire over the good of the individual?

Except when I dressed Zarrah like a courtesan and paraded her in front of you, you didn’t look at her as someone to be bedded and discarded; you looked at her like you wanted to get down on your knees and beg for her hand! As though you loved her!”

There was a quiver to his voice, the grief in his eyes so vast it carved out her heart.

A flicker of unease ran through Zarrah. Not because she believed Keris to be anything like his father but because she sensed a thread of darkness ran through him. An inky stream that, if ever allowed to swell, might turn him into something far worse than Silas.

I want all of these things, yet I face a future with none of them, and I don’t know whether I want to fall on my own blade or burn everything to ash because I do not want to let you go.”

“A lifetime wouldn’t be enough. Eternity wouldn’t be enough. Not when I want to map every star in the sky with you in my arms.”

It wasn’t a no. But it wasn’t a yes. A twist of anger rolled through his chest, because what did she have to go back to? Whom did she have to go back to besides the aunt who’d left her for dead? It wouldn’t be a happy life she returned to, and he wanted more for her than that.

If you’d said yes, it would have made you like me. And I could never love someone like me.”

But right now, I also hate you because you are your father’s son. You will have things your way no matter the cost.”