“Itriedto use magic,” Cameron said. “None of it worked. I thought that meant you were dead. It didn’t make sense at the time, but now I believe that your latent demigod magic overpowered any tracking spells I had access to. I was obsessed with finding you, to the point where it nearly killed me. Drea was the one who convinced me to give up the search.”
My stomach bottomed out. “So she was the reason nobody ever found me. How long did it take you to give up after you got together? A year? Five years? What, did you marry her, then decide you were going to forget about the first family you’d created because you got a new one?”
“It’s not like that,” Cameron insisted. “Drea saved my life.”
“How, by fucking you?” I growled.
“Ancestors, Charlie, is that all you think about?” Cameron demanded. “My relationship with Drea goes far deeper than that.”
“Yeah, I’m sure it goesdeep,” I muttered.
Cameron’s voice turned stern. “I know you’re used to speaking your mind and throwing punches, but you can’t act like that in the palace. If you’re going to be a prince, you have to leave your attitude in the past.”
Great, now he was lecturing me.
“Regardless of what you think of your stepmother, you’re going to have to learn to get along with her,” Cameron said. “She’s my guard, which means wherever I go, she goes. She may not become the queen, but sheismy wife. I won’t have you insulting her again.”
“And whycan’tshe become queen?” I demanded, already knowing the answer. I just wanted to hear him say it out loud.
“Drea was born into her role as my guard,” Cameron explained. “As such, she is magically bound to her birth station.She can’t climb ranks or become a princess as your wife can, regardless of our marriage license, because her magical duty supersedes any other contract.”
“There’syour problem!” I shouted. “You just admitted it. She’s your guard first. Can’t you see this marriage is wrong?”
Cameron shot out of his chair and slammed a fist down on the table. “That’s enough! You don’t know the first thing about what Drea and I have together. You’ve been married to Ava-Marie for barely a year. Don’t act like you’re an expert on marriage. I’ve been married to Drea for nearly twenty years, and I certainly know more about being in a committed relationship than you and your wife!”
That pissed me off more than anything else he’d said. Ava and I had managed to keep our marriage intact despite everything that had been thrown at us. It didn’t matter how long my dad and Drea had been together. It didn’t change that he was wrong and I was right.
“Don’t youdarebring my wife into this!” I yelled as I jumped to my feet. My chair fell over, and my whole body shook. Magic rattled around inside of me, and I had the sudden urge to burst out of my skin and breathe fire out of my mouth. The familiar feeling of supernatural strength surged through me, and I knew I must be siphoning powers from someone nearby. “You don’t want me insulting your marriage? Don’t treat mine like it’s invalid because you’ve been married longer! Ava and I have been through hell together, something I bet you and Drea can’t say while lounging around in your fancy-ass dining room and sleeping on your silk sheets, being waited on hand and foot every hour of the day.”
Cameron’s breath wavered, like he was trying hard to hold back an insult. He spoke slowly and deliberately. “Don’t makeanyassumptions about what I’ve been through.”
“Oh, I think I’ve assumed enough,” I growled.
Screw this prince duty shit. I was supposed to be in charge here, which meant I did whatever the hell I wanted. I turned from my father and stormed out of the room. It was better than throwing a punch at his head.
I was too furious to process my surroundings. All I knew was I had to get away from my father. I hurried down the hall and heard footsteps coming my way. I thought it was Eddie, until I heard the sound of my grandfather’s voice.
“Charlie, slow down,” Emperor Cassiel insisted. “There’s no need to get angry.”
I stopped in my tracks. “You heard all that?”
“Everyone in this wing heard it,” my grandfather said, though his tone was hard to read. I noticed then that there were other footsteps and voices passing through the hall. We weren’t alone.
Magic rippled up and down my form. I rubbed my arms to feelscalesappearing along my skin. I didn’t know what the fuck was happening to me. I began clawing at the scales like I could rip them off my arms.
Several people gasped. They’d all stopped to stare.
“You need to calm yourself,” Cassiel instructed, sounding concerned. “You’re siphoning magic from a dragon shifter in the kitchens.”
My throat began to burn with the heat of fire rising up inside of it. I’d siphoned supernatural strength and speed from others before, but never anything as powerful as their shifter abilities. I wasn’t eventouchingthe dragon shifter. Hell, we weren’t even in the same room. It really freaked me out.
Cassiel grabbed my shoulders firmly and shook me. “Charlie, you must get your anger under control, or it will control you. If you shift inside the palace, you could bring this whole hall down upon us.”
“What the hell do you want me to do?” I demanded. “Take deep breaths and confess myfeelings? Not gonna work, gramps.”
“It’d be a pretty damn good start,” he stated sternly. He wasn’t being mean— it was more like… he cared.
“So I’m just supposed to walk out of there acting like everything is fine?” I asked. “My father married hisguard. How could you allow this? Why didn’t you stop him?”
