The Heart of Betrayal (The Remnant Chronicles, #2)

by Mary E. Pearson

You need to know, Princess, he didn’t mean to deceive you. It tore at him.”

“You have to promise me something. When the time comes, watch Rafe’s back before mine. Make sure he gets out, and your fellow soldiers.

“It is a way of trust, Jezelia. Do you trust the voice within you?”

Whatever quarrel had recently passed, it was now mended. I would serve them both. In hell I would.

He didn’t lose. He let me win. Preserving his identity as a foppish emissary was more important to him than parting my head from my shoulders—and I knew that was a prize he very much desired.

“I don’t play games, Kaden. I wage wars. Don’t make me wage one on you.”

She’s marrying him to save you.” I leaned back against the wall and closed my eyes. For you. Only for you.

“Kiss me,” I said. “Before you say anything else, just kiss me and hold me and tell me it was worth it, no matter what happens.”

“I promised you I’d get us out of this, and I will. We’re going to have a long life together, Lia.”

“But, Rafe, if things don’t go as planned, if you have to leave without me, promise me you will.” I could tell he was about to protest but then he paused, chewing his lip. “I will,” he said, “if you promise to do the same.” “You’re a terrible liar.”

He frowned. “And I used to be so good at it. You’re my downfall. But you still have to promise me.”

I’d never leave wit...

He sighed, and his lips grazed mine again, whispering against them. “I suppose we’ll both have to get out, then.”

“It was worth it, Lia,” he said. “Every mile, every day. I’d do it all again. I’d chase you across three continents if that’s what it took to be with you.”

“Look at us,” he said. “We’re quite a pair, aren’t we?”

“No one would recognize us,” I answered. “We’re hardly a proper prince and princess anymore.”

“You were never a proper princess.” His hands cradled my face, and his smile faded. “But you’re everything I want. Remember that. I love you, Lia. Not a title. And not because a piece of paper says I should. Because I do.”

and there was Pauline, as kind and gentle a girl as it was possible for any earthly being to be.

We had to be wrong. It wasn’t what I felt in my heart.

“Not now. I saw us a long time from now. I had a baby in my arms.”

I knew I shouldn’t, but I cared about Kaden too—only not in the way that he so desperately wanted me to. Nothing, not even time or a gift, could change that.

I wished that love could be simple, that it was always given and returned in the same measure, equally and at the same time, that all the planets aligned in a perfect way to dispel all doubts, that it was easy to understand and never painful.

And then Rafe came along.

He changed everything. He consumed me in a different way—the way his eyes made everything jump inside of me when I looked into them, his laughter, temper, the way he sometimes struggled for words, the way his jaw twitched when he was angry, the thoughtful way he listened to me, his incredible restraint and resolve in the face of overwhelming odds. When I looked at him, I saw the easygoing farmer he could have been, but I also saw the soldier and prince that he was. We’ve had a terrible start—it doesn’t mean we can’t have a better ending. The way he filled me with hope.

I knew only one thing with certainty—it couldn’t end the way Kaden hoped it would.

“Now, that’s the princess I know and love.” “You’ve never loved anything in your life,” I said.

Leave without me, Rafe. You promised.

“You were wrong, Komizar. It’s much easier to kill a man than a horse.”

Rafe felled one guard after another, fighting shoulder to shoulder with Kaden against the onslaught.

“I love you,” I cried, even as I choked on water. If there were to be last words he heard from me, I wanted it to be those.

We already had three steps behind us. “Hold on, Lia,” I whispered. Hold on for me.