Luca took her hands in his. “I would give it up for you.”
Oh, her heart. No matter what happened, he would always be the same boy she fell in love with.
“I know,” Amarande squeezed his hands right back, “because that’s who you are, but for the sake of your people, you should not.”
“I can still shepherd them through even if I’m not their king.”
“But you shouldn’t simply guide them.”
She slipped her fingers through the silken strands of dark hair at his temples. “I know you first agreed to take the mantle because it meant you were a prince and if you claimed that blood, we could marry to gain my crown. But the truth is that you want it now.”
The knot at his throat bobbed.
She caught his eyes and gave him an encouraging smile.
“You want to claim your destiny, your family’s legacy—and you have. That’s a good thing, Luca. Don’t lie to yourself about that for my benefit.”
Amarande paused, reading his golden eyes, making sure Luca could both comprehend and believe her words. It was quite a task—cutting through his armor of selflessness to the part of him that, deep down, understood not all sacrifices meant walking away.
“Your people deserveyouas their king.”
Amarande’s fingers swept down the side of his face and cupped his chin. “They waited for you not simply for your blood but because you’rethe right person.Geneva knows that and that is exactly why she’s trying so hard to unseat you. Without you, the uprising falls apart. Torrence is easier for her to reclaim. And you know what will happen then. Everyone who supported you will go to the firepits. Things will be worse than before.”
Luca’s shoulders slumped a little, and Amarande sat up to catch them, fortify them, steady them, her grip firm. “You can’t let that happen. And you won’t. You’regoodat this, Luca. You’re a natural leader, and your kindness is a rarity upon this continent. We need more of it.”
After a time, he drew in a deep, longing breath. “You’re right.”
Relieved, Amarande released his shoulders and swept her palms over his knuckles, entwining their hands in the crevice of space between where her knees jutted out from her skirts as she sat upon her haunches, and the muscled hardness of his outer thigh.
He sighed, a tiny, resigned smile in it. “You once called the royals all greedy and backstabbing, and even though they’ve all changed positions, they almost seem worse now.”
“They’ve had the opportunity to grow more pungent over time.” Amarande’s eyes widened. “Like cheese.”
Luca coughed out a surprised laugh. “I suppose you’re being polite in not simply comparing them to sagardoa—time and bad apples and all that.”
“I wouldn’t dare do that to our national drink.” Then Amarande realized she’d misspoken. “Mynational drink… I suppose.” She reddened a bit. “I know you belong to a whole other kingdom—I even just ranted about it. And yet I still forget.”
“It’ll take time, Ama.”
Yes. But that was something they didn’t have. They had a week—less, now.
Amarande squeezed her eyes shut and forced the conversation away from fermented metaphors and back to the matter at hand.
“The point is—Iknowyou would give it up for me. Thatisyou, that’s who you are. But what we both know, and what those rotten-hearted men at the conclave knew, is that it would be best ifIdid.”
All the lightness from a moment earlier completely evaporated, horror parting Luca’s lips now. His golden eyes flared wide as he firmly, but gently, gripped her shoulders. When his words rushed out, they were fierce and low and burned like the last embers of a fire. “Ama, no, you can’t—”
“Luca, I would if it were the best thing, but it’s not. I don’t have the same kind heart you have.” She patted him gently on the chest, and then rested her palm there, right over his wolf tattoo. “I wish I did, but the truth is that I don’t. I don’t give up easily, especially when I’ve been challenged, and for much of the time, if I’m being honest, I wanted to rule because I thought it was my right.”
“Itisyour right, Ama.”
Rights meant nothing to a woman if men said they did not.
Amarande sighed at the certainty in his expression. Luca was everything that was good about men—kind, generous, selfless, and a lover and leader to boot. Why weren’t more men like him? It would all be so much easier if they were.
“It is,but what I am saying, badly, is that I wanted to rule for the wrong reasons.” Heat tore into her cheeks as the words spilled out. “Because my father did and his father before him, and on and on in a long line of men dating to before the first stone was laid in building this castle. I thought that keeping Ardenia within my blood would be the best thing for my country, not becauseIwould necessarily be the best thing.”
She paused, embarrassed as much as she was relieved. There’d been much time to think about this, to turn this particular diamond over in her mind and really inspect it. Eventually the sheen wore off and Amarande could see to the heart of the matter so clearly.
