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He cupped his hand under my chin and tipped my head back toward him. “It means you are the most guileless being I’ve ever met, My Queen. You don’t know any other way to be.”
A shiver ran through me as his lips lingered inches from mine, and my breath caught.
“Y-you hardly know me, Cade,” I whispered, trying to turn away, but he held me in place, forcing me to look into his eyes.
“I thought we were changing that.”
“And Stralia?” I blurted out, unable to keep the question that had been weighing on me for the week since I’d learned about her.
Cade drew back, caught off guard by the query. “What about her?”
“What is your history with her?”
His jaw tightened, azure irises darkening to cobalt as he studied my face. “Have you been honing into the staff gossip?” he asked.
“Are you the staff? Because I’m asking you,” I replied simply. “I did hear some rumors, but now I’m asking you about their veracity.”
Cade inhaled so deeply, I was surprised he didn’t take the air from my lungs with him, but he didn’t fall away from me.
“The war orphaned a lot of children,” he informed me flatly.
I had been sheltered from the aftermath of the War of Sorrows, which had ended when I was eleven years old, but my father often recalled the death toll and the lost children. But I still did not understand what one thing had to do with the other until Cade elaborated.
“Stralia was orphaned during the war and remained in the palace, eating scraps, and not really collecting a paycheck until I realized what was happening about six months later. I hadn’t realized she was living as she was, and I immediately put her on the payroll as a maid. She became my friend—a very close friend—and sometimes lover.”
My brow knit into a vee as he looked away, my gut tightening as I caught the falsehood in his words. She had to be more than hissometimes lover. I tried to circumvent the jealousy washing in waves around me.
He was watering it down for my benefit.
“I care very much for Stralia, but she has always known that I would marry, and we would not be together. It wasn’t a secret.”
“She may have known it, but she doesn’t like it,” I muttered, unwilling to let the explanation stand.
“Stralia is not, nor will she be, a problem,” Cade said forcefully. I wanted so much to believe him, his face still so close to mine. “You’ll see.”
He turned fully toward me now, his eyes gleaming in the afternoon sunshine, breath warming my face. “And if you continue to assert yourself as I’ve shown you, you’ll realize that you won’t have these petty fears to overcome, either.”
I scoffed, but he silenced my dubiousness with a long, sweet kiss, capturing my heart directly in my throat. His hands cupped around my face eagerly as my lids fell closed, the scent of his masculinity overtaking me as it had from the first moment I’d met him. All the doubts which had plagued me evaporated, and suddenly, a crack of lightning flashed above us, a whirlwind storm cloud pouring rain over both of us to drench us with a flash flood.
Choking and sputtering, Cade drew back in shock, but I tittered, unfazed by the abrupt turn of weather, and he realized then that I was the one responsible for the blast of rain.
“Youdid this?” he guffawed, wiping the ever-pouring water from his face. I raised my hand and ended the sudden storm, the sun returning to dry us as quickly as the water had soaked us. “That’s your unique magical gift? You can control the weather?!”
I shushed him, looking about furtively, but as always, we were alone in the courtyard, the servants leaving us to our sparring as they always did. “It’s a secret.”
“But why?” Cade demanded, his head raised toward the sky in disbelief, searching for the storm clouds which had fully disappeared now, revealing only the bright, blinking sunshine overhead. “Why would you hide this?”
“I don’t know,” I admitted, hugging my arms against my breasts, feeling very exposed at that moment.
Cade’s gaze traveled back toward me, his stare softening. I shivered under his look, my cheeks pinkening. This wasn’t the way I wanted to show myself to him.
“My parents have always warned me about sharing my unique abilities with anyone, and I believed them,” I explained.
“It’s a very special power to possess,” he said, wrapping his arm protectively around me. “Your parents likely wanted to keep you safe from poachers or kidnappers. They were wise to keep your talents hidden, but once you are queen…”
He beamed, as if the possibilities appealed to him. I wasn’t sure I shared in his enthusiasm and said as much.
“We’re not even sure if the kingdom is going to like me, Cade,” I reminded him quietly. “Let’s not tell anyone else about my magic yet.”
