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I hesitated, tempted by her words. Maybe if I had a bit more time to get accustomed to the idea…
“You can’t!” Aradia hissed, flying toward us, her heels tapping on the floor, gown swooshing. “And you’re both idiots if you believe it. There is a time for everything, and now that Cade is turning twenty-five, he’ll be crowned and needs a queen. Zephyrine cannot and will not be ‘sent back,’ you dumb fool! Stop filling his head with these ridiculous ideas!”
The glimmer of hope in me faded with Aradia’s reality check. I didn’t think that Stralia really believed her own words, either, but we had been together since we were children, orphaned as teens, the aftermath of the War of Sorrows ravaging the kingdom with illness.
Stralia’s father, her only living parent at the time, had taken his own life when he was too weak to move on, his magic depleted with a sickness. Feeling inadequate and unable to care for Stralia, he had seen no other way.
My parents had fallen victim to the secondary plague that had swept through the palace at an alarming rate, killing thirty percent of the staff as well.
Stralia and I had found solace in each other’s arms, despite our difference in status. We had grief in common, and predictably, our relationship had turned physical.
But we had both known this day was coming from the start. The blood oath had been ingrained in me since I could understand words. And now that Zephyrine was here, there was nothing anyone could really do about it.
Stralia scowled, but she purposely turned her back to Aradia, facing me imploringly. I cupped her face tenderly and smiled. “Nothing will change between us,” I vowed.
Aradia hissed again, shooting a charge of electricity between us to push us apart, but I anticipated her move and blocked it with a shield of magic. The force bounced back and hit the mirror, shattering it into pieces. Stralia jumped, but I didn’t flinch as Aradia scowled deeply, clearly irked by our open display of affection.
“At least wait on your adultery until after the wedding. If Zephyrine catches you, there will be no marriage, and no marriage means no crown,” the enchantress reminded me.
Sighing, I allowed my hand to fall away from Stralia’s cheek. “The fae isn’t coming in here,” I retorted sharply, hating the way Aradia could so freely come and go as she did, catching my most intimate thoughts and actions. But as an enchantress, she had powers that the rest of us did not, and she wielded them as unsparingly with me as she had with my father and grandfather.
Enchantresses live far too long,I thought, and not for the first time.Why don’t they just die at a normal age like the rest of us?
Aradia had to be over a hundred years old already and still didn’t look like she was going anywhere for a while.
But I silently agreed that I would have to be more careful. Aradia was rarely wrong. That’s why she was the enchantress for our kingdom and not busking in an alley in Ironhelm City.
“I’m not going to change my habits because of her,” Stralia grumbled stubbornly.
I held up my hand as Aradia opened her mouth to unleash another earful.
“It’s not going to be forever,” I promised. “But until the wedding—”
“NO! Cade, come on!” Stralia begged.
“Shh!” I implored her, but I maintained my firmness. “You can’t keep coming here at night anymore, not with Zephyrine in the palace now. Aradia is right. We have to be careful—at least until after the wedding is over. It’s just a few more weeks.”
Stralia stared at me as if I’d sprouted a second head. “What about what you just said about things being the same as always?” she sputtered.
“After the wedding and coronation,” I reassured her.
I reached for her hands and squeezed them as Aradia grunted rudely. I ignored her and drew my lover in for a kiss. “But for now, you have to stay away. Will you do that for me, babe? Please?”
She returned my embrace eagerly as Aradia turned away, muttering something I couldn’t hear under her breath.
“All right,” Stralia agreed when we parted. “But hurry up. I don’t like this.”
“Me neither,” I reassured her. “We’re moving as fast as we can.”
Smacking her ass through her work uniform, I ushered her out the door. “I’ll text you when I get a chance.”
She glanced at me over her shoulder, her green eyes hooded. “I wish there was a way to break this promise. Are you going to have children with her and have the same curse on their heads?”
I shuddered inwardly at the thought, but cast it aside. “You’re really overthinking this, Stralia. Come on, be a good girl, and get back to work. I’ll text you.”
“A video call would be better,” she suggested coyly, winking.
“I’ll see what I can do,” I lied.
