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“And your mother?”
His expression turned guarded before he said softly, “I love her very much.”
“And...your father?” I probed.
All expression left his face before he said, “With royalty comes demands. With demands come chains.”
His statement made me pause, not just because he’d refused to speak of the king but also because, for the first time, understanding hit me. “You’re no more free than I currently am.”
He gave another shrug. “Perhaps a bit freer than you, since I can command your servants, but in some ways, I’m not free at all.”
His tone held a lightness to it that hadn’t been there previously, but I still detected the underlying despair. And not for the first time, I saw again the deep-seated emotion that resided within the prince. He not only had empathy, but he felt things deeply, felt things so viscerally that I once again wondered what being Death Master of our continent did to him.
Breaths coming faster, I turned away. It was happening again, exactly what Cailis had warned me of. I was falling under his spell anew, feeling things for him that I shouldn’t.
I abruptly stood from the bench. “I think I would like to return to my room now.”
His expression closed off as he gazed up at me, but only a heartbeat passed before he stood. “Of course.”
We walked silently back to my chambers, ambling through the outer paths until we ducked through a door into his private wing.
We passed a door I’d never seen before, and the prince angled his head toward it. “That leads to my private chambers.”
“It does?”
He smiled, and some of the heaviness from our earlier conversation lifted in that one movement. “I could show it to you if you want.” He waggled his eyebrows playfully.
I suppressed a laugh. “Are you asking me back to your chambers?”
“Would you if I asked?”
His tone suddenly turned serious, and my step faltered. “I can’t bed you. You’re to date other females while I date other males.”
“I won’t be inviting any of them back to my chambers.”
“How do you know? You may.” I quickened my pace, finally recognizing where we were in his wing.
“I won’t.”
I frowned as my stomach flipped. “Even if you don’t, you still killed my parents. I could never bed you despite what happened at the ball.” It was the closest either of us had come to discussing our kiss on the balcony again, that soul-searing tangle of lips and tongue.
His footsteps continued quietly beside me before he said hesitantly, “What if I didn’t kill your parents, what then?”
My heart stopped. Just when I’d started to truly think that maybe, justmaybe, the crown prince wasn’t a monster and that he did harbor true kindness in his black soul, he had to go and throw that in my face.
“Don’t be cruel.” Ice formed around my heart, and I swallowed the tears that wanted to come as I walked even faster.
“Ilara, can I trust you?”
My brow furrowed as I abruptly stopped and faced him, my chest heaving. “Why are you asking me that again?”
He glanced over my shoulder, down the hall. The faint sound of servants reached my ears. “Perhaps I’ll explain another time.”
“Explainwhat?” I demanded as I rounded the final turn, and Jovin appeared. “What are you hiding now?”
But his mask had descended. Any hint of what his cryptic words would reveal had vanished.
I brought a hand to my forehead. Fatigue hit me suddenly. The prince was hiding something again, perhaps many things. He was a male of shadows and darkness, death and destruction, and whenever a hint was revealed as to what truly lay within him, a veil always descended, blocking me out. The Bringer of Darkness always stared back at me.
