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If he risked his heart, it would be for her.This amazing woman who’d helped him escape twice had made sure he connected with his father, had brought him here to hide from his enemies, had chased a killer to save him.Who had kissed him to quiet his powers, to save him, to spark an attraction that might incinerate him as his powers had threatened to do before.
The quick wit he’d been known for in courtrooms failed him.Before he could think of a response, she was gone, sweeping from the room with her head held high.
Look back.Just once.
But she didn’t.His best chance at a forever love walked out, leaving him as everyone else had.
“Come with me, Consort.”Mykata stood beside him.When had she moved?His attention had been pinned on his princess.
He flicked a gaze over the guard.In the last year, he would’ve drawn on his magic and annihilated everyone here.He would’ve destroyed them for his own gain, for his survival.But he’d paid too great a price.Not the prison.Although that’d been torture, it’d been deserved.Now, he was beyond redemption, beyond a place where he could become worthy of Vori.But he couldtryto be the man she had believed in, the one she’d done everything in her power to save no matter the cost to her.
“You’ll regret this,” he told Artanya.He couldn’t bring himself to use any of her titles.“Harming an innocent carries a consequence—whether now or later.”A lesson he knew all too well.He’d lost his shot at Vori, and damn, if it wasn’t somehow a penalty for his past crimes.
“Innocents always suffer in this realm, but you won’t be here much longer to witness it if we keep the promise to your princess.”Artanya sounded as though the last was a loophole she’d find a way out of.
Mykata narrowed her eyes but didn’t say anything, merely motioned for him to follow.He did, but his feet felt heavy, as if they’d been bound with concrete.The glow of the stones dimmed in the hallway, giving the sense that the castle’s magic faded along with his hope.
“Vori didn’t kill the king.”He couldn’t keep such a gross injustice quiet.
The captain stared ahead.“I know.”
“Then how can you let your sister do this?”
“Because Artanya has made sacrifices for this realm.”
“So did Vori.She gave up her family, her home, everything when her mother told her to run.She’s mourning the childhood she lost, the mother she lost.She doesn’t deserve to be locked up for a crime she didn’t commit.”Not like he had been.No, there hadn’t been a trial in his case either, but he’d done what he’d been accused of.“We have to help her.”
“I can’t.”Mykata’s tone said her decision was final.
But he changed tactics.“Your baby sister is alive.She’s been in the human realm.Why did Artanya lie about her death?And how did your older sister really get those scars?They don’t look like knife wounds.”He’d seen enough of those in crime scene photos.“More like claw marks.Ones smaller than a goblin king would make.”He spread his fingers to demonstrate.“A child’s claw.”
The captain clenched her jaw so hard a muscle jumped.“I swore to return you safely to the human realm.That’s all I will do.Nothing more.”
He’d pushed too far.He should stop.But he couldn’t.“You made a blood vow to Vori.So you understand the price she would’ve paid if she hadn’t collected those amethysts and returned here.She didn’t want to come home, didn’t want anything to do with this realm.She doesn’t want your throne.”
The captain’s nostrils flared.
Anger was good.It led to action.“Vori would be the better ruler, and we both know it.Kradnovtl needs someone who puts its people first.”
“As my sister will.”
“What has Artanya done?Helped starve your people?Redecorated the castle with her crimson-and-silver banners?Accused an innocent woman?Lied to us?”
“She has been under the king’s control.Her rule will be different.”
He couldn’t tell if she was trying to convince him or herself.“You don’t believe that.”
“You said you lost your sister.Your older sister?”
“Yes.”Lili.
“You loved her?You trusted her?”
“She was all I had.”
“Then you should know why I choosemysister.”
They had reached the suite.He stopped in the doorway.“Don’t let them lock your princess in the dungeon of a castle that should rightfully be hers.”
