Page 52 of Heart of the Raven Prince

“Let me guess,” I call over my shoulder, marching furiously away from him. “You’re going to tell me how unfit she is to be queen, or that because she’s a human I shouldn’t be wasting my fucking time. Don’t bother.”

“I thought you knew me better than that,” he huffs out, catching up to me. The asshole plants his feet in front of me again, and this time I don’t back down.

“And I thought you were different from them, I guess I was fucking wrong,” I say, my voice bitingly cold.

“Are you done being a prick?” he asks, crossing his arms and glaring at me. I’m breathing heavily, exhausted and yet no less ready to fight. The fact that he isn’t taking the bait is annoying the hell out of me. “When you met Sorcia, who did you come to first?”

“You, but—”

“Did I encourage you to pursue her?”

“Yes, but that doesn’t—”

“And the day your parents banned her from the palace, who commiserated with you? Who drank with you long into the night as we called them every name we could think of?”

“You, you fucking asshole, but I—”

“Have I ever once mentioned her race, or her status?”

I don’t even bother responding. I know this is a trick, some path he is trying to lead me down, and I also have no doubt it was orchestrated by my father. All to form a wedge between myself and Sorcia. Narrowing my eyes at him, I say between clenched teeth, “You hate her. Don’t bother denying it, you know you can’t lie to me.”

That was true, at least back when Doran and I were closer. When we felt like brothers.

“I don’t hate her,” he says, and I scoff, but he is undeterred. “I do not hate her, Caden. I hate you with her. I hate the version of you that you’re becoming around her. I hate that you’re so fucking blind to it. I don’t care that she’s human, I don’t care that she’s not who your parents would have picked for you…”

I’m holding my breath as he trails off, my heart beating erratically in my chest. His words claw at my mind, trying to shred the resolve I have built around Sorcia. Then his look of annoyance melts into one of complete loss.

Sighing, he shakes his head and says, “I don’t like that you’ve changed. The two of you don’t fit, and I think there is a part of you that knows it. You keep breaking off pieces of yourself to try and force it with her. You’re morphing, Caden. I don’t recognize you anymore. And soon you won’t be able to recognize yourself either.”

With those damning words, he turns and walks away from me.

And that rip between us grows.

“Maybe I should just go,” Sorcia says, her lips brushing my chest as I cradle her against me. I hush her, placing a kiss atop her head as I draw her closer. We’re naked, curled up in bed, and I’ve only just divulged the events of the disastrous dinner with my parents. She asked me again about the book in my parents' castle, and I had to tell her I'm not exactly on speaking terms with them.

“They hate me,” she whispers softly.

She’s not wrong. My parents were warm and kind when I first introduced Sorcia, my mother even bringing her along to several events with her ladies-in-waiting. When my father introduced her to the other Offsprings at court, I assumed Sorcia would fit in well with them. But she only spent one very short afternoon in their presence. They banned her from ever returning to their wing of the palace and would not tell me why. Though I suspected they informed my parents, because shortly after their demeanor toward her turned frosty, suspicious almost.

My father pulled me into his private chambers and tried to persuade me to part ways with Sorcia. When I outright refused, he reminded me of the prophecy, and I laughed in his face. I couldn’t believe they were really so hateful toward Sorcia, just because some ancient text in their vast library warned of a coming storm.

The crowns will shatter beneath the wings of a raven. His heart for her life will call death upon the realm.

That’s it. So many meaningless words were all it took to damn Sorcia in their eyes. How she has anything to do with some ramblings of an ancient lunatic is something they’ve never explained. The fight with my father started with him shoving that prophecy in my face and forbidding me to ever see her again. That’s how it started, but it ended when he sent me flying into a stone wall with a burst of his power. I walked out of the palace that day and never returned.

“They don’t hate you,” I say, placing a finger under her chin and tilting her face to mine. I’m trying to sound reassuring, but she just continues to frown at me.

“Even Doran can’t stand to be in the same room as me,” she pouts as I curl my hands in her midnight-black locks. I press another kiss to her head, inhaling her musky scent. She’s always coated in the heady incense from her temple.

“Doran doesn’t like anybody,” I mutter against her hair.

“He’s your best friend and he won’t say two words to me,” she protests. I frown, holding her tighter. What can I say to that? She’s not wrong. Doran made it very clear how he feels about her. He didn’t side with my parents, believing some insane theory about doom coming to our land. His reason for disliking her is entirely different.

I don’t like how you’ve changed for her.

I haven’t spoken to Doran since our fight. We see each other at court, and in the sparring ring, but we never talk anymore. Why can’t everyone in my life see Sorcia like I do? Why can’t they accept us? I pushed him away like I did with my parents. Sorcia reminded me that if they weren’t going to support our relationship, then they didn’t deserve a spot in our lives.

She asked me to cut them out, so I did. There is nothing I wouldn’t do for the woman I love.