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For those fearless enough to follow their heart
Damn the pretending. Damn the hiding. Damn everything but him and us and this moment where I need him.
I thought I’d known torment until it wrapped around her finger. No, torment is tangible, and it gleams atop her tanned skin.
I stare, unblinking, at the symbol my brother slid onto her finger. It is binding. It is infinite. It is my undoing.
I watch Paedyn through the gaps of a gawking crowd, just as I will for the rest of my life. I’ll be forced to spend my days at her service but never at her side. In her shadow but never truly seen. In love with a girl I’d have bowed to long before she became my queen.
Why couldn’t we have just stayed in that field of poppies? I would spend the rest of my days making her flower crowns if she wanted to be a queen. My queen. Not Kitt’s. Not Ilya’s. Mine.
But just as it always does, my gaze trails back to Paedyn.
“So much as breathe on her again,” I snarl, “and I’ll ensure it’s the last time you ever do.”
Oh lawdy lawd🤩
she was meant to be the death of me, not the life of another.
It was her I was meant to adore in this world and crawl to in the one after.
“I am no one’s queen.” “Is that so?” My fingers find her cheek before trailing down the smooth slope of her nose. “Then you have no idea how much power you hold over me.”
“We both know it will take more than a locked door to keep me from you.” My eyes travel over his shadowed shoulder to find a gaping hole where my door once stood. Now it decorates the floor, having ungracefully toppled to the ground. The thudding in my dream. That was real—that was this. He had kicked the damn door down.
“Can I get no privacy around here?” I joke weakly, voice still shaky with the remnants of my nightmare. “Privacy?” His chuckle skitters up my spine, awakening my sleepy senses. “Darling, I’d be in this bed beside you if my brother hadn’t slipped a ring onto your finger.”
knuckles. “The problem wouldn’t be taking that ring off. It would be getting me to put it back on.”
“I’m sorry you’re forced to relive that moment every time you shut your eyes.” “Not every time.” I shift, slipping off his chest to sit beside him. “Not when I’m with you.”
“Then I’ll never leave your side.” I give him a look. “Don’t make promises you can’t keep.” “It’s not promises I care to keep—it’s you.”
“You’re quite the poet, Prince.” Moonlight pools in the dimple that accompanies his grin. “And you the muse, darling.”
“Oh, my pretty Pae.” His words are a murmur against my lips. “For once, it is I who will be your undoing.”
He kisses the pad of my thumb before the war begins.
Loot is in shambles. My home is in shambles. And so is my heart.
He had carried me up into the castle, started the fire that warmed my numb limbs. Then he’d kissed my forehead and slipped out the door, likely dealing with more pressing Enforcer duties than the crumbling queen-to-be.
He watches me now, an ache in his gaze that mirrors my own. I want nothing more than to be held by him, enveloped in the comfort of his arms. He is a weakness I am not supposed to indulge in. Not in this life, at least.
But I will only survive this life if she does.
I will survive these Trials and so much more. Still, you will likely hate me.” She lifts her chin, expression deceitfully calm. “So bow at my feet with a sneer, if you must. I won’t see it with your face to the ground.”
