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“I did what I had to do.”
He stood taller and his voice grew louder. “But you didn’t have to keep doing it!”
“I needed to become stronger. I had to protect myself,” I argued.
“Protect yourself, fine. But you took it farther than that. I saw what you did in the queen’s sitting room. That wasn’t normal self-defense.”
I tossed my hands up. “And why does that bother you so much, Leo? Is it the fact that I became someone strong enough to never be taken advantage of again or that I became someone who doesn’t need your protection?”
He took a step back and placed his injured hand to his chest. Leo wanted to slay my dragons while I attempted to outrun this kingdom, but the earth was nothing more than a curve that would always lead me back home, no matter how hard or how far I ran. So I stopped running. I picked myself up off the floor, and I became a girl who didn’t have to fly away from her pain.
I learned to fight it.
“You should leave,” he grunted. “Shower and get dressed for your duties today.”
I inhaled deeply through my nose and exhaled, my lips parting as I stared at him. “Right.”
I turned my back to him and walked toward the door leading out of the gym. “Christine?” he called at my back, and when I looked over my shoulder, he had a solemn expression on his face.
“What?”
“I can save you, you know,” he whispered. “I’m not the man terrified of the consequences anymore.”
I smiled. “I’m not afraid of the consequences either.”
Chapter Fourteen
AUGUST
For a solid minute, I stood without moving, staring at my bedroom door and listening to the flurry of activity just on the other side. I knew as soon as I opened the door, there would be an entire team of people asking questions and demanding shit from me.
It had been this way since I stepped off my yacht and came back to the castle. First it was the formal ceremony for the transfer of power. The processional. The viewing. The only good thing about the entire ordeal was seeing Christine at the funeral, but even then I was fucked in the head about seeing the girl I loved.
And the engagement gave me a little bit of a break, but it was still a beating. Press conferences and photo shoots. The day I made Christine come with my tongue was one of the best and worst days of my life. I finally had her, but she was a ghost and we were publicity tools, neither of us able to talk about what happened while the world picked us apart.
Yesterday, I stayed away. Christine had dress fittings and wedding plans to make. I had pills to take.
I didn’t want to leave my room today.
I probably could have avoided them all. I had some coke in my nightstand, and Adonis would bring me champagne if I asked him to. I was the fucking future king, which meant I could bloody well do whatever the hell I wanted to.
And believe me, I wanted to sit in bed and sulk for the rest of the day.
So why wasn’t I?
I knew the answer to my own question. It all started and ended with the same person.
Christine.
I took one day to be self-destructive, but I couldn’t wallow forever.
I had to step up for her and grovel like my life depended on it. All this time, I’d thought she’d abandoned me, but it was the other way around. She was alone on the other side of the world, licking her wounds and coping with something I could have and should have prevented.
And it fucking killed me. I kept imagining her alone in her apartment. Crying. Feeling alone. I’d just fucked off on my yacht while she suffered. Knowing that made me sick to my stomach.
It was time to fucking man up and do the job I was born to do.
I reached for the handle and opened the door, greeted with the sight of seven people holding clipboards and staring expectantly at me. I let out a low growl of disapproval. “Let’s get this fucking shit over with. Keep up.” I shoved through the crowd and started making my way down the long hallway, heading toward the queen’s sitting room to break something.
