Julian jerked his head towards the open door. “Can we talk?”
“I don’t want to leave her alone…”
“I’ll stay with her.” Haeden held out his hand, flicking a finger towards the bowl on the nightstand. “You two talk. I’ll do this.”
Kalie bit her lip. She couldn’t run any longer. Passing the bowl to Haeden, she rose to her feet and hobbled through the open door. Julian pulled it shut.
Dissonant beeps and the odor of antiseptic attacked her, making her head pound. A team of nurses bolted past; a slight woman straddled the gurney, performing CPR on a man whose skin was red and raw. The wailing monitor above the stretcher made Kalie flinch, and in the blink of an eye, she was clutching Mylis’s swollen hand, screaming at the nurses to save him as they wheeled him into an operating room.
Hugging her arms to her chest, she buried the memory.
“Will she wake up?”
Kalie sniffed and pressed her hand to her running nose. “They’ve done what they can for now, and they think they’ve stabilized her, but the damage… It’s worse than it looks. The doctors are afraid her organs might fail, and I told them I’ll donate anything she needs, but it’s bad. Really, really bad.”
Julian’s piercing stare bore into her, and she wilted as she read the silent reply in his tight features:We’ll have to talk about that eventually.
He sighed. “Iliana’s dead. My scouts found her body washed up on the lakeshore.”
“Did the fall kill her?”Or was it my blast?
“Hard to say until the coroner examines her. I assume it was the fall. If she jumped from the palace, the impact would’ve killed her instantly.” Julian studied her as a pair of doctors bustled by. “It is surprising, though, isn’t it? That she jumped?”
Kalie stiffened. No one knew she’d been holding a pulser when Iliana had jumped, and it was better for her if it stayed that way. If they’d found the body, though, and one of the blasts had connected…
She shivered. Julian hadn’t mentioned any wounds. She had to hope no one found any. The last thing she needed was to start her reign with more accusations of murder.
She shifted her gaze to the shuttered blinds covering Ariah’s window. “She was terrified of going back to prison. I don’t blame her.”
“Hmm. Do you blame your uncle?”
Glancing towards the room where Uncle Jerran was being treated, Kalie drew her lip between her teeth. They’d brought him down from Titan hours ago, injured and malnourished, but the doctors had assured her he’d be on his feet in no time.
Though she loved Uncle Jerran, and the ghost of the girl she’d been was overjoyed that he was alive, her heart twisted at the unfairness of it all. He’d condemned a girl her age, his own niece, to languish on Titan for twenty cycles. The experience had been so traumatizing that she’d flung herself out a window rather than return, and now the Throne Maker was going to stroll into her court like nothing had changed. Who knew how many other secrets he was keeping?
“I’m figuring it out. He has a lot of explaining to do. I don’t think it’ll ever be the same between us.”
Moving forward, this would be her court. Not his.
“Can I make a suggestion?” Julian’s voice was light, but he was frowning. “I’m assuming you’re hiding from him, but… talk. Talk to him. Your uncle loves you. Ignoring him, pretending that love doesn’t exist—that solves nothing.”
Kalie’s fingers curled around her elbows. Her eyes strayed towards a painting on the opposite wall, but she’d run from this for far too long. Mustering up her courage, she faced Julian.
“I’m sorry.”
His eyelid twitched, but his face betrayed nothing.
Machines chirped, and distant shouts floated down the hall.
“I shouldn’t have left you there. I… I panicked. You knew I wasn’t ready to marry, and you—in front of everyone—” Julian’s jaw tightened, and Kalie reigned in her rising pitch. “I shouldn’t have run from you. You deserve better, someone who wants to be married. Someone who brings out the best in you. Someone who stays when things get tough.”
Her mind drifted to gray eyes and a vexing smirk, but she seized Julian’s hand. As he lowered his head, his throat bobbed.
“I’m sorry. But I meant what I said in my message—I’m done running. I’m here to stay.”
Julian took a shaky breath. “Being my Contessa was never your calling. You’ve always been destined for something more.”
“Only because you helped me. If your troops hadn’t come to my aid, we wouldn’t be having this conversation.”
