Page 100 of A Cruel Kindness

I couldn’t alter his words.

Elijah would be delivering that very message to the Prince, and then I would be engaged.

“I trust you are smart enough not to attempt to tamper with this,” my father said as he stood to hand me the letter.

I nodded numbly, not sure what else to do.

“Good,” he said, echoing the same words he’d said when I stood in this very spot and he inspected the Mark freshly inked into my skin. The very same one that was burning in painful fury. “Your transport will leave this afternoon. I would like this letter delivered as soon as possible.”

“What do you want to happen?” I asked, needing to test the limits of his honesty.

My father dragged a hand down my hair, his movements rough and too harsh. “You will get married. Then you will have a child. That child will rule both planets and carry Edelstenne blood. They will know that their grandfather was the one that brought peace and unity to these planets.”

“You don’t want peace,” I snapped.

“Oh, but I do. Maybe I’m the only one who understands what it takes to get it. If there happens to be a side effect of encouraging trade between our planets, which I will of course take credit for and use as an excuse to remain in power, that would be wonderful.”

I laughed under my breath incredulously. “They wouldn’t possibly force out the Emperor if he was the father to the queen that would unite them all.”

My father’s smile was sickening. “Exactly. See, you are not cut from a different cloth. I know the daughter I raised.”

I’d spent my entire life trying not to turn into my father’s daughter, only to have that become my defining feature. What I’d always be remembered by.

“If you would say goodbye to your mother before you depart, that would be appreciated.” And with that, I was dismissed.

I walked out of his office numbly, stumbling through the halls without any rhyme or reason before I somehow ended back at my bedroom door.

Soren was standing there waiting for me.

My knees almost gave out when I saw the open, if not excited, look on his face as he saw me approach, none the wiser of the death sentence I held in my hand.

It only took him a moment to register my distress, causing him to run up to me and grab my face in his large, comforting hands.

Hands I didn’t think I was supposed to relish in anymore.

“What happened?” he cursed out, he and the Bond already pressing for the source of my anguish.

My breath was shaky. How was I possibly supposed to tell him? Drawing on a reserved well of strength, I whispered, “The Prince’s proposal. He asked for my hand in marriage in exchange for reserving an assault on the Bridge and Vir. My father accepted.”

Soren stepped back, his hands dropping from my face.

My heart broke right then and there.

“And you?” he asked, his voice hollow and cold.

That was the horrible truth. I had to tell him that I had accepted too, even if under duress. “What was I going to do?”

Soren’s head dropped to the floor, breaking eye contact. I stood there, my face contorting in pain as I waited for his response.

It could have been seconds or minutes or hours before he finally responded, “I will die before I let you marry him.”

I jerked back at the force of his voice, and at the words too. He’d never alluded to controlling me. “Let me?”

Soren finally looked at me, as if he needed to see if my expression matched the venom in my tone. Whatever he saw on my face caused him to forcefully tamper his tone, breathing deep before he spoke again. “Yes, let you. You don’t want this. My only priority is protecting what you want.” The forced softness in his voice was even more heartbreaking than the rough command.

He was right. I didn’t want this. Even then, I shook my head, feeling my eyebrows crease together in pain. “I don’t think what I want matters that much in the grand scheme of things.”

Not when I seemed to be burdened with the responsibility of ending this war. It was horribly, deeply unfair. That didn’t mean I could do anything about it. If it was between my happiness and innocent life … it would be my happiness on the line.