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I push her away and slide to my side, Katrina’s letter safe in my hands.
“You know you’ve been a real bore sinceyour queensent that decree admitting that she’s too ugly to find a husband on her own, so she has to order one of you lot to marry her,” she says mockingly, adding emphasis on the word queen in a sarcastic tone.
I turn over again on the bed, placing my arm under my head while my other hand grips Cleo’s chin. Hard.
“First of all,my queenis the most beautiful one to ever exist. We should consider us lucky that she has limited her pool of endless choices to only the three kings in her kingdom. And second, if I’m a bore, then you should seek company elsewhere and leave me be.”
Even though I’m hurting her—my fingers are bound to leave a mark—Cleo doesn’t so much as flinch. Not that it surprises me. I’ve hurt her enough over the years for this to be just foreplay for her.
We both have.
But not anymore.
When I release my grip on her chin, her pout only deepens.
“Go, Cleo. Go find yourself something else to play with. I’m busy,” I order as I turn my back to her again.
It takes but two seconds for me to feel her long nails scratch my back to the point of making me bleed. This time, when I turn around, I go for her throat, her eyes glazing over as if this was what she was after all along. I lean in so close to her face, my lips almost brush hers.
“I said go. Leave,” I growl menacingly.
Cleo’s lust quickly morphs to alarm.
She knows me well enough to know the difference between our little sex games and when I’m pissed beyond measure. This time when I let her go, she quickly scampers to the edge of my bed, gaining a good amount of distance between us. But to my chagrin, she doesn’t leave.
“Cleo—” I start, having had enough of her tantrums.
“You’re my only friend, Teodoro. Where am I supposed to go?”
My chest tightens at her words, knowing how true they are.
Like me, Cleo is the black sheep of her family. Where most of her brothers and sisters work the fields from sunrise to sunset with her parents, Cleo preferred to earn her way in this world very differently—on her back.
“My parents worked arduously, night and day, without a penny to show for it and two dead children that died from starvation because of it. I swore that I would never have that life. I would never starve again while tending to crops for the rich to feast on,” she told me the first night we met.
It all feels like years ago.
One day when I was feeling even more sorry for myself than usual, I decided to take a stroll through the rougher part of my city. I didn’t even bother putting much effort into my disguise. I think in a way, I wanted to get caught. Wanted someone to know that I was the crown prince and to either kidnap me for ransom and then kill me or just mug me and then kill me. Whatever they decided to do, I wanted the last part to be the sweet kiss of death. Anything to get me out of the miserable existence I had been living.
But then I stumbled upon one of the most sought-out brothels in all of Nas Laed. I must have stood outside its doors for over an hour, trying to gain the courage to walk inside it. Seventeen summers in and I had only ever kissed one girl, my kitten.
But she was gone to me now.
Her father made sure to isolate her up in Tarnow Castle and keep her locked away from all who loved her. Not that it mattered much to me anymore. By then she would have learnt of what I had done to her precious Levi. She would have never forgiven me for such a betrayal.
I was a walking corpse that no one had the decency to bury.
Loneliness more than curiosity was what drove me to go inside, and there, I met Cleo.
Right from the get-go, I had never met a spirit so free of judgment and guilt. She had everything I ever wanted and desired, yet she was the whore, and I was the next in line to be king.
After that night, Cleo would become my teacher, then my lover, and ultimately, my only friend and confidant. We never promised each other love; that wasn’t what our relationship was about.
But we did vow our eternal friendship to one another.
And I’m the one who is breaking that vow.
She never changed who she was. I did.
