Page 25 of The Crown’s Temptation

He stayed there for a long time.

His mind drifted to the Moon Chambers. He had never gotten to show them to her. Never gotten to see her face when she saw the plants, the chocolate fountain, and every other ridiculous little detail he had added because he knew they would make her smile.

He had pretended it had needed to be prepared from disuse. In truth, he had wanted it prepared with everything she loved. An ordinary garden would have been boring. He had asked them to find strange fruits that could survive in such an environment. He had wanted so badly to see her face when she saw it. He had even had them prepare a bed almost twice the size of anything they had ever slept on, so the children could snuggle comfortably during story time.

It was probably ready by now.

If she were here, they would have read to the children and then pretended to retire early. Then they would bathe together. She would run her fingers through his hair while he told her every unnecessary detail of the day’s council meetings, and she would listen. She would give her opinion. She would remember the smallest details from the day before because she always did.

He had spent his entire life shutting himself away from everyone. But with her, somehow, he had been able to be himself. He could set down the weight of the world every night and simply exist.

After their bath, she would admonish him for sneaking Fiorakis blood while she dressed for dinner, and he would pretend he had forgotten he was not supposed to.

Sometimes she would come up with other things to scold him about.

Most recently his hair.

She had asked to trim it one day, then told him she had read in the Alarnan libraries that lightcraft could be used to cut hair.

He had told her she must have misread, because trimming hair most certainly required scissors. He had refused, told her she was not qualified, and threatened to ask one of the old Matrons to do it instead.

He did it just to see her laugh. Just to have her punch his arm so he could lift her and carry her to bed.

She would stop him at some point when words no longer mattered, and she would remind him that no Matron could do the trim. That no one could touch his hair or any other part of him except for her.

Her possessiveness always aroused him.

With the Moon Chambers, he had planned it all out. When they were finished, he would show her every room. Their dining suite. The places where they would sit with their children. He would have roast fowl prepared and a strawberry cake waiting.

His Asha Bear loved strawberry cake. She preferred that he feed it to her.

He loved that.

She had spent so much of her life being hurt. Used. Abused.

He had promised himself he would always protect her.

Yet in the end, she had been poisoned and discarded like she was nothing.

The sound that left him did not belong to anything human. He pressed the pillow harder against his face, trying to keep the walls from hearing it.

The News

DALI

Kisernia Docks

The ship had started in Gyarin. Now it was a day or two from Veynar when the messenger ran onto the dock at Kisernia.

“Queen Asharin is dead.”

Dali surfaced the moment the words landed. She would have smiled had it not offended everyone around her.

The death of Asharin made her neither happy nor sad. But it would make Maridale sad, which would make her weak. A weak Maridale meant that Dali could feed and spend time with Eravic.

If, of course, he was not displeased with her.

He had been cross with her lately, ever since the small Gyarin incident. He had been trying to get his precious Asharin to safety, to Alarna, when Dali had a terrible bout of hunger. Maridale had left Veynar almost as soon as Asharin had. King Sevrin had become unhinged. Moreover, Dali’s connections had told her that Teorin Rathmor was on the same ship as Asharin.