The king froze.
“I was under his spell.” He slowly turned to Snow. “I would never turn my back to you on purpose.” He meandered closer, contemplative. “I, too, have lost a great love, and I know how much it hurts.” Tears shone in his eyes. “The spell caused my grief to fade but now that it’s broken, I feel your papa’s loss all over again, fresh, like it happened just yesterday.”
He closed the gap between them. “If these men make you feel safe, so be it. But I don’t have to like it. You’re a prince of the realm, and there are expectations.”
“I don’t care about expectations,” Snow said. “I will live and love as I choose, free from the constraints of this court. I won’t be passed to a pampered prince for political gain, not when the man I love goes into the ground this very afternoon. A man I was sent into the arms of whenyourPrince Consort tried to have me murdered, I might add.”
The king winced. “I was bewitched, Snow. You cannot blame me for my actions trapped in the Prince Consort’s web.”
“I shall just accept all the pain and forgive it away?” Snow asked.
His father was silent several seconds. “I am sorry for all you’ve gone through, but I am not the villain here, Snow. I have lost much, as well.” Tears shone in his eyes again. “And it feels as if I’m losing my son again, the only piece I have left of the man I truly love.”
“I feel lost to myself right now,” Snow admitted. “Perhaps I’ll find myself in time.”
His father cupped his cheek. “Time heals all wounds. For your sake, I hope it’s sooner than later. Just promise that you won’t push me away before that day comes,hmm?”
Snow nodded. “I’ll try.”
“All I can ask.”
His father left the dining room, and multiple courtiers left with him. All that was left behind was Shen, Owan, Hwa, and a few servants—and Snow, of course. Hwa tried to comfort him, but Snow pulled away. He didn’t want comfort. The pain he now felt was the first true emotion he’d felt since right after Vor’s passing. He wanted to ache. He wanted that suffering. Excusing himself, he raced from the dining room and ran through the castle like he’d done as a small child, reckless and free. Tears streamed down his face as he ran, emotion finally allowed released.
Breathless, he stopped for a moment. He gazed to the side and noticed he’d stopped near the chapel—where Vor’s body had been laid out for the service. Snow walked closer, more tears coming and blurring his vision. Vor lay in a glass coffin, wearing regal clothes that seemed odd for him. Snow could almost laugh, knowing Vor would’ve hated such finery. His body had been thoroughly cleaned and a thin, almost transparent layer of white silk placed over his face.
“We didn’t have long enough, Vor. I barely knew you, yet I feel this loss so deeply.” He peeled the silk away from Vor’s face and caressed his cheek. After pressing his lips to Vor’s, tears streamed down his cheeks again. One dropped onto Vor’s lower lip. “I love you, Vor.”
He lowered his head to kiss the teardrop away.
“I love you, too.”
Snow gasped, opening his eyes and lifting his head.
Vor stared up at him, eyes barely open in thin slits. He raised a hand to his chest, near where the largest bolt of magic had struck. “I feel like death warmed over. What in the hell hit me?” He glanced down at himself, clearly noting the quickly made finery Snow had insisted his mate be buried in.“Whatam I wearing?”
Snow couldn’t answer.
He passed out from the shock.
Chapter Fifteen
Snow’s lashes fluttered as he awakened in his bed, the late afternoon light filtering in through the long shears covering the windows. It gave his bedroom a dreamlike atmosphere, as if he wasn’t in the real world. His head was foggy, too, and he struggled to clear it. Suddenly, he bolted upright.The funeral.
He was late to his mate’s funeral.
Nay.
He heard that in Vor’s voice, of course. A small smile played over his lips before more tears fell. Snow’s gaze first went to Shen at his left, who sat on the side of his bed with a soft smile of his own. But it was too bright given the circumstances. A halo of light circled his head from the windows behind him. Hwa sat beside him, farther down the bed, also smiling. Why would they smile like that on the second worst day of his life? Whipping his head to the other side, Owan sat across from Hwa. Right beside…
Vor.
Snow struggled to take in his next breath. His heart thundered inside his chest. The memory of them in the chapel came back to him like a flash.A flash.Just like the lightning that had taken Vor from him in the meadow.
Tears burned the backs of his eyes. “Are you really here?”
“I am,”Vor murmured. His smile grew. He took Snow’s hand and kissed the palm. “I’m alive, my love.”
Snow leapt to his knees and pushed himself onto Vor’s lap, wrapping his arms around the alpha. He buried his nose against Vor’s neck, inhaling the man’s scent deep. Vor smelled of the woods. Oak, pine, strength, and sunshine.
