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“For the love of God,” Indigo burst out. “Just because your wife’s a nosey busybody who thinks Nicolette and I should have a dalliance doesn’t make it so. Because we most certainly are not—”
“What did you just call your queen?” Brentley bellowed, narrowing his eyes.
Indigo gave an impatient sigh. “Your Majesty, the entire suggestion is ludicrous. The princess is like a sister to me. She was barely sixteen when I met her. I would never—”
“No, you would not,” Brentley blustered, his face growing purple with outrage. “Because I’m a hot second from having you beheaded, you arrogant—”
“Enough,” I cried, interrupting their argument. Lifting my eyebrows archly at Brentley, I said, “Stop threatening my bodyguard for merely trying to do the job you hired him to do. And you…” Spinning toward Indigo, I nailed him with a glare. “What is your problem today?”
Indigo furrowed his own eyebrows with mock confusion. “I know not what you mean, princess.”
“Oh, Jesus.” I slapped my hands to my hips, beyond exasperated by this entire conversation. “Let’s see. You refused to attend the festival when I gave you leave to go by yourself. Then, you made up all those frivolous stories to distract me from who knows what.”
“They weren’t—”
“And now—now you’re arguing with the king about letting me merely walk down the hall alone to my own bedchamber. Have I come under some new threat that I’m not aware of? Because you’re being unusually dependent today, not even letting another guard watch me while you take a quick luncheon. And it’s starting to grate on my nerves.”
“New threat? What’s this, you say?” Brentley sat up straighter, suddenly very alert. When Indigo hesitated in answering, the king turned toward his brother-in-law, who led the Donnelly army and supervised all matters of security in the kingdom. “Is Nicolette under a new threat?”
Urban frowned, also beginning to look alarmed. “Not that I’m aware of.” Squinting at his guard, he pressed, “Indigo?”
Indigo clenched his teeth with great reluctance before sighing out his capitulation. “She’s perfectly safe,” he told both Brentley and Urban before he turned back to me. “It’s just that you’ve been so forlorn lately. Something's going on with you, and I can’t tell what you’re thinking. I wasn’t sure if you might—”
When he broke off abruptly and winced, I had to ask, “If I might what?” Groaning out my realization, I finally guessed, “Run off?”
He didn’t respond except to shift his gaze away guiltily.
My mouth dropped open. “My God, Indigo. It’s been five years since I met him. I promised I wouldn’t try to seek him out. And I haven’t. I know he is from enemy lands. Have I not proven my word worthy yet? Not even after all this time?”
“My lady,” he pleaded, his eyes begging for forgiveness. But the respectful address after he had so dishonorably believed I would lie to everyone about how I would not leave Donnelly merely to seek out my true love pricked my temper.
Unless he came to me, I would not wander out on my own to find him. That was my word, and I would keep it.
“No,” I growled, lifting a hand to ward Indigo away. “I can’t believe you’d assume I would just race off and leave without a single farewell. I thought I’d grown and matured enough to show you all—”
“Nicolette, it’s not that,” Indigo bit out, scowling at me.
I scowled right back. “Then what is it?”
Groaning, he pressed both hands to his head and scowled at me for making him say it. “At High Cliff,” he started reluctantly, dropping his arms. “I once knew a girl who met her soul mate briefly, just as you did, before he was taken away to a prison in Lowden so she could never see him again. And that absence wore on her. It wore on her so heavily that she ended up taking her own life from the misery of it. I just…” Glancing away, he moodily groused, “You’ve been so sad lately, is all. I didn’t—I wasn’t sure what to think.”
“So, you’ve been worried I was going to—what—kill myself?”
“I don’t…” Looking guilty and remorseful, he merely shrugged. “I don’t know! I’ve never been through what you’re going through. I don’t know how much the mark is impairing you.”
At the mention of it, my mark sent a dull arrow of pain slicing through the upper portion of my head. Wincing, I pressed the heel of my palm to it.
He stepped forward as if to assist, but I held up my other hand to ward him off.
“I’m not going to hurt myself,” I said, straightening. Unable to stay upset with him, since all this was because he was truly concerned for my safety, I softened enough to add, “I promise you that.”
He nodded, only to prod, “Would you tell me if it were reaching that point, though?”
I wasn’t sure, so I remained silent. Everyone else seemed to think that was an answer all on its own, however.
“In that case…” Brentley spoke up. “Please escort my sister to her room, would you, Indi
go?”
