Lioran caught me deep in thought. He waited for me outside my door.
I wanted to embrace him but resisted. “You’re home.”
“I know you don’t want to see me right now.” His body stiffened.
“No, I do.” My arm settled on the door to my chambers, pushing it open.
“We need to discuss Myrwood Grove.”
“You need to let me make this decision on my own.”
“I can’t…” He exhaled. “The Grove is far too dangerous. The cost is too great. Cora may be wrong.”
“My existence…started a war. A war that resulted in a blight—and if I’m the solution, I must consider if I can pay the price.”
“I don’t know of any fae that have had their magic severed from them. What if it takes more than your magic?”
He wouldn’t stop until I backed down—until I told him I wouldn’t go. I didn’t want to discuss it any longer.
Sunlight danced across the high ceiling, casting leafy shadows over my bed. My head lowered—this room was a constant reminder of who I would never be. As much as I hoped to keep the thoughts at bay, they crept back in like the tide—unpredictable and unrelenting.
“Maybe we shouldn’t be doing this. Maybe it’s time to stop.”
His breathing intensified. “What are you talking about?”
“I mean this…” I gestured my hand around the room. “It’s meant for someone who isn’t me.”
“It is yours. Please. We just don’t agree on Cora’s vision.” His words were desperate. A stinging chill slid down my back.
The color slowly drained from his cheeks, and his eyes dimmed.
“You will be the king your people deserve.” My lips grazed his—if I could keep this moment—this feeling for all eternity, I would. “I will be your loyal subject always.”
He cupped my face in his palm. “You will never bow to me.”
My heart unclenched with his touch, but my jaw tightened with his words.
“The stars have other plans for us. Maybe it’s time for us to accept that.”
“I will never.” He leaned closer, his lips hovering over mine—as if he were asking permission to kiss me again.
My lips greeted his and I sank down inside of myself.
“Maybe there’s another way...” I hesitated to say it, unsure if I even believed it. “A way for us to still love each other, even when you...marry someone else.” I could never promise it, but I said it like I could.
“What life would that be for you? Keeping secrets…” His hands wrapped around me, holding me in front of him. “You’d stand there and watch me with my wife…with my children…while we exist in stolen moments?”
It was never what I wanted for myself.
Someday he would marry her, his queen. She would love him maybe even how I had. It wouldn’t just break my heart to steal away in secret, it would break hers.
I couldn’t do that to either of us.
“Could you?” He wouldn’t stop until I answered him.
I could see it all.
His wife. His children. His life without me.
