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Chapter 45
Rafferty
Rafe foundTaveon wandering around the Great Hall with a wild look in his eyes. Oh, his poor, fiery friend. Once again, Taveon had given in to the side of himself that Midas would have been proud of. The side that cut others down. The side that made them feel as though they were mere ants in comparison to his beast. Rafe understood that Taveon did not mean a word he said to Bree. He’d panicked, hearing that she’d put two and two together about hiswings.
And then he’d lashed out, hoping to drive her away fromhim.
Well, it hadworked.
It was a fact that hurt Rafe far more than he wanted to admit. A part of him had hoped that her affection toward him would cut through the terrible things that Taveon had said and done to her. But the damage had been done, and Rafe had to accept that he wasn’t enough to get Bree to stay inUnderworld.
She was probably halfway back to her homealready.
He would never see her again. He would never again gaze into those fiery blue eyes. He would never again hear the sigh slip from her lungs as he kissedher.
Rafe ground his teeth together and threw up the mental shield around his thoughts. He had to stay strong now. Taveon was going to need all the help he could get if he still wanted to take the crown afterthis.
Rafferty waved down his friend, and Taveon was across the room in the blink of an eye. “Have you seenher?”
“I am afraid I have, old friend.” Rafe grimaced. He did not know how he was going to break the news. The crown would no longer be his, not if Dagen had anything to say aboutit.
“What do you mean you are afraid you have?” Taveon’s grin spread across his face in a lighthearted expression that Rafe rarely saw in the Prince these days. He looked so much like his younger self now, the adventurous Prince who wanted nothing more than to explore the lands beyond this castle. That Prince had been lost to the one he had become now. Perhaps this misstep was a blessing in disguise. A chance for Taveon to find the male he used tobe.
“She went to Lord Dagen and told him that your wings are not red like every other male fae in the Kavanaugh family.” A pause. “She did not tell him they were silver, but it is damaging enough that he now knows you are not Midas’sson.”
“What?” The smile fell away, and Taveon paled. “She told Lord Dagen? But why would she go to him? Why did she not go toyou?”
“Apparently, he promised herfreedom.”
Taveon’s jaw rippled as his entire body tensed. “He promised her freedom. Of course he did. That is what he’s been after all this time. Information that can keep me off the throne. I knew he was using her.I knew it. He pretended to care for her, all to ruin my chances of sitting on thatthrone.”
Rafe could see that Taveon had gone from sadness to anger in the blink of an eye. But Rafe could hardly muster up the energy for thelatter.
“You do realize what this means, do you not?” Rafe asked. “Bree is gone. He has given her freedom, and she has taken it. And now he will inform the Court about what youare.”
Taveon stiffened and glanced behind him at the guards roaming around the Great Hall, still searching for Bree. “I thought she did not tell him the color. I thought he did not know what Iam.”
“I misspoke,” Rafe said gently. “He does not know what you are, but he does know you arenotMidas’s son. I imagine he will call an assembly with the rest of the Court as soon as he gets thechance.”
Taveon sighed, dropped back his head, and stared up at the domed ceiling. “I suppose it was only a matter of time. That secret was never going to stay hidden forever. I am surprised it has not come out before now, if I am honest. My father had many moments when I thought he would reveal itall.”
Rafe lifted an eyebrow. “You do not seem as upset as I thought you would be. You have spent your entire life dreaming of that crown. You have always wanted to rule, and you have always wanted to make Underworld a betterplace.”
“What is done is done,” Taveon said grimly. “And it is my fault, in the end. If I had not treated Bree terribly, none of this would have happened. She came to me before she went to Dagen, you know. I think she wanted me to tell her the truth. And instead...I put a wall up between us, even after we tore it down. I am the one to blame for this. Perhaps I even deserve it. In these past few weeks, I have not been a better fae than myfather.”
Rafe wanted to argue with his friend, to tell him to fight, but he also knew that his old friend might be better off leaving this dream behind once and forall.
“And Bree?” Rafferty asked. “What will we do aboutBree?”
The pain in Taveon’s eyes deepened. “We have to let her go, Rafe. She was never ours tokeep.”
