“Y-your Highness. I didn’t realize you were standing there.”
“It’s all right. There’s been a lot going on. I decided to travel back home with Mikos so I could be with Vannos as long as possible. Naturally, he’s taking all of this with Bryos very hard. I hated to leave him, but my husband was insistent. Made quite a scene about it.” He sighed and came around to sit down at the table between me and Taran. “Please go on with your meal. I didn’t mean to interrupt it.”
“It’s fine, Your Highness. I-I’m suddenly not very hungry.”
Taran made a little sound of amusement, and I glared at him.
“What’s so funny?”
“Oh nothing. It’s just that you seemed to be enjoying your meal a lot until I asked you to marry me, and then you got choked and now you won’t eat at all. Very telling, General. Especially considering you called me your nobyo on more than one occasion.”
“What do you mean?” I glanced over at the consort Blake. “What does he mean, Your Highness?”
“Oh, no, please don’t drag me in the middle of this. I’ve already given Bryos my opinion on the subject, and from what I heard, he has been compromised, General. I’m sure you realize that.” He smoothed down the front of his robe and turned to look directly in my eyes. He gave me an unflinching look, and I could see why his sons seemed to be a bit intimidated by him.
“I also just came by to tell you something.” He reached over and squeezed my hand. “Sorry to change the subject on you, but I need to tell you that I’ve found your omak. He’d love to see you again, and he asked me to give you his information.”
“You-youwhat?”
He smiled and went on like I hadn’t said a word. “He’s quite well, and living in Molvalli, which is the silly name for a city we humans used to call New York. He has married again, and he and his husband have an apartment on the west side. I’ve written down his new married name and all of his information for you. He said he’d love to see you and your brother again, and he was so sorry to have lost touch with you. He wrote to you after your father made him leave Tygeria, but your father deleted and blocked all his messages and warned him not to try to get in touch again. He even involved the police, who were totally on your father’s side, he said. Typical.”
I was shocked and speechless and just stared at the consort.
“Anyway, dear, that’s his address and number, if you decide you want to see him. Now I think I’m interrupting an important conversation, so I’ll just excuse myself and get out of the way. Come and see me again after you speak to him and let me know what you decide. I’ll do what I can to help.” He looked over at Taran and smiled. “About everything.”
He got back up to his feet, waved at Taran and went on his way. For a long moment after he left, I sat there in shock. My omak was alive and had sent me messages. Could it be true? I wanted to know more, but I had a certain important situation Ihad to address first. I reached across the table and took Taran’s hand in mine.
“Why would you want to marry me? We don’t have to be married for us to be together. I’ll be accompanying your family back to Laltana with my guards soon, and I thought you could work as my aide. You can be my liaison to the Royal Guard. Wouldn’t you like that?”
“Yes, I think I would. I’d love to talk more about it, anyway. But first, I’d like to marry you. What do you say?”
“What do I…? Taran, I never want to marry anyone ever again.”
He sat back, looking a little deflated. “But why? Why is that? Don’t you love me?”
“It has nothing to do with that. But…I don’t believe in love. What if something happened? What if I were to lose you after we were married? I can’t go through that again. I just can’t. Love is no good. It’s not enough. It’snever enough.”
“That’s where you’re wrong,” he said, staring at me with those beautiful dark eyes. Love is always enough. It has to be, because in the end, it’s all we have, isn’t it? Beauty fades, and old age and death comes for us all eventually. We can lose each other to injuries and accidents and illnesses and all kinds of thing we can’t predict. But in the end, we still have the love. You loved Merik and you still do, even after all this time. I know you do, and I understand. I’d never want to take that away from you. Because that’s another thing about love—it’s always willing to make room for more, and it never goes away. You still have that love for Merik churning around inside of you, just looking around for a place to go. No wonder you act so mean and grouchy sometimes.”
“I’m not mean.”
He held up two fingers, an inch apart. “A little bit. I think I can cure you of it, though.”
“Oh, do you?”
“Yes, I’m pretty confident about it.”
“And if I’m not? Confident this will work?”
“I believe I can convince you to change your mind. In fact, I’m willing to devote the rest of my life to it. But if I’m wrong, and you don’t love me…then I won’t keep hanging around, hoping for you to change your mind. My fathers want me to stay in Laltana at the palace, but I’m still loyal to the Royal Guard. If you decide not to take another chance on love, then maybe I’ll go with the Royal Guard when they find a new home outside of the capitol city. It would be too painful to hang around hoping you’ll change your mind one day.”
“You’re not goinganywhere.”
He smiled at me. “But you don’t get to decide that if you don’t love me, Kirstos. Don’t worry. I’ll give you plenty of time to make up your mind. But if, after you’ve had time to consider my proposal, you’re still afraid…”
“I’mnotafraid.”
“Okay. I believe you. If you decide you don’t want to take another chance on love then…I’ll move on. It’s only fair to let me go, Kirstos and try to be happy somewhere else.” He stood up and looked down at me. “Just think about your answer, and I’ll be around.” And with that, the little bastard turned and walked out of the dining room, leaving me to sit there alone, fuming.
