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“What the hell are you doing here?” I demanded, flabbergasted.
Stralia slipped inside and shut the door, backing me up as guilt flooded my entire body. I hadn’t thought about my lifelong friend in weeks, not since I’d banished her to the north wing, where I had put her out of sight and therefore out of mind. It had been the best solution for everyone. It ensured that Stralia still had a home, but that she was not in direct contact with anyone intimately involved with me.
“I can’t visit my old friend on his last night as a prince?” she asked sweetly, cocking her head to the side. In the darkness, her green eyes glowed like embers against the shadows, her white-blonde halo eerie. She seemed like a ghost in that lighting, and she creeped me out slightly. I found it odd that I had once been so attracted to her.
“Stralia, I explained to you that it’s over, and you continued to cross boundaries. You shouldn’t be here—in more ways than one,” I growled, moving past her, but with lightning-fast reflexes, her hand whipped out, and she grabbed at me.
“Don’t! Wait!”
I stopped, gritting my teeth. “Stralia, I’m already late for the rehearsal dinner,” I told her. “I don’t have time for,” I gestured wildly at her, “whatever this is.”
“This is me confronting you finally,” Stralia informed me, her voice etched in pain. “How can you seriously go through with this, Cade?”
I blinked, my arm lowering as I stared at her. “What is this, Stralia? What are you doing?”
“What amIdoing? What areyoudoing?” she demanded. “You loveme! You have always lovedme! This marriage—it’s not what you want. I keep waiting for you to come to your senses, but you’re actually going to go through with it. For what? The good of the kingdom?”
She scoffed in disbelief.
“Yes!” I replied sharply. “Yes, and you always knew that it was going to happen this way. Are you having a breakdown? Coming here like this?”
“Are you? You would give up our love for this senseless marriage?”
My face softened as I peered at her twisted expression, and I realized that she had never really accepted what was going to happen, despite the fact that we had always prepared for it.
“It’s not senseless, Stralia,” I told her, stepping closer to touch her face. “I’m in love.”
Stralia’s eyes bugged, and she started to shake her head, but I didn’t let her speak as I shushed her gently.
“It’s true. I believe that we’re mated. I feel it inside me and that it will come to fruition. You must accept it, Stralia, because it is the only way for us to move on—both of us.”
Stralia released a gasp and snaked her neck forward to kiss me, catching me off guard. I fell back, disgusted and annoyed. “What is wrong with you?” I growled. “Did you not hear what I just said?”
“I heard you! I just don’t believe you!” she wailed, stomping her foot. “A lifetime, we’ve been together. You barely know this fae! You can’t love her already!”
“And yet I do. We are getting married tomorrow, Stralia. She will be my queen. What you and I had is over. Please. Do not come here again, or I will be forced to eject you from the palace. I don’t want to do that.”
I didn’t give her the opportunity to respond as I flew out of the suite, determined to leave Stralia and my old ways behind me forever. Stralia was the past. Zephyrine, my queen, was the future. And she was waiting for me.
Chapter25
Zephy
Ican’t believe he’s late to the dinner,I thought, hurrying through the corridor toward our shared suites.
I couldn’t bear the thought of sitting down at the heavily decorated tables without Cade at my side, my parents staring at me reprovingly, as if I had something to do with the reason my fiancé was not there on time.
I looked for Aradia first, but the enchantress was conveniently absent. As I hurried through the long corridors, I heard the low tones of Cade’s voice filter into the hallway. I slowed my gait, realizing that he was not alone.
I suppose that answers my question as to where Aradia is also,I mused, making my way to the slightly ajar door. Yet as I closed in on the rooms, I froze in my tracks, the words coming into my ears as my eyes took in the scene through the crack in the door. It was not the enchantress collecting Cade.
My eyes took in the scene in disbelief, my heart filling my throat to smother the cry that wanted to fall from my lips.
Cade stood with Stralia in his arms, in our room, the very room which he knew that I would not be returning to that night.
“It’s not senseless, Stralia,” Cade said huskily, his hands stroking her face. “I’m in love.”
My heart leaped into my mouth, my knees buckling as Cade continued, speaking the words of my worst nightmares.
