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Smiling, I shrugged a shoulder coyly, aware that Stark was now nursing his own headache. "It seems to have gone now."
Twitching his lips as if resisting his own smile, Luther tilted his head. "Do your species always pick fights to improve their mood?"
"Don't yours?"
"Touché!" Turning on a pinhead, Luther marched out of the room, followed by what remained of the Elite. Most left when the situation was clearly handled.
Patting his son's shoulder with the hand that wasn't pressed to his head, Stark followed the others. When the room cleared, Hartwin, Jervaise, Nyla, and Ellery were all that remained.
Holding his shoulder with a grimace, Jervaise sat hard on the lounge, but there was a smirk pulling at the side of his mouth. "You pack a blackness of a punch, Princess." I was starting to get the impression the Cyran soldiers liked being beaten up by a woman.
Grabbing my elbow, Hartwin marched me towards the bedroom, anger radiating off him like a storm. "In a minute, Ellery. I need a word with the Princess about her behavior." Then, slamming the doors shut, he turned on me. "You bewitched my father? How? Why?"
Typical. No one really understood Avalonian powers, and maybe that was our doing on purpose. Because a reputation that incited fear was a type of power. "I didn't bewitch him. I couldn't if I wanted to. I know nothing of his desires, and he shields them like all elite guards."
"Then what did you do?"
Sighing, I sat wearily on the end of the bed. "There is one passion he has always held, Hart. You. His fatherly concern and need for you to be well and happy. He loves his son, and that gave me a way to hurt him. I showed him what he took from me."
"He took nothing, Zira. It was my choice to end things. You became too attached, wanted more than you could ever have."
"Your choice on the advice of your father, Hart. I was content with what we had. I just wanted it to be known that I dedicated myself to being your lover." The silence fell between us. "Did he tell you he told me to forget you, to go away and forget you ever existed? He told me you never loved me—"
"I already told you that, that I could never love you."
"—never wanted me, that you were just using me to release a man's need. That a Cyran soldier could never be attracted to someone so frail and emotional as myself. You left me feeling abandoned. He made me feel worthless."
Squatting in front of me, Hartwin took my hands in his. "You needed to move on. I needed to step away from a temptation. Zira, he was doing what was best for both of us."
"Was it?"
Hartwin sighed too heavily. "You are with the only man I will ever believe truly worthy of you, Zira. You are exactly where you should be." Standing, he left too quickly for me to believe he meant those words.
Once I was alone, Nyla came through the door with Ellery, concern evident on both their faces. "You have a headache?" Nyla asked. "Anything else? Nausea? Cramping?"
When she knelt before me, I fell into her arms, crying. Nyla held me to her shoulder, rubbing my back just as she did two years ago when I'd stumbled through the door heartbroken, the future I dreamed of crushed. She'd known; my parents, too. I'd told them about Hartwin only days earlier. Told them that I loved him and planned to be with him in whatever form that could happen, as long as I was his.
"Medic Ellery, I believe this is a matter of the soul and not the body," Nyla's voice was soft, soothing as she dismissed him. "I think I should nurse the Princess through this one alone."
"Has she always been this aggressive?"
Tilting her head to eye him, Nyla gritted her teeth. "No, but you have a powerful child, forced into a joining, not of her choosing. She feels threatened and trapped and now all those emotions, like with all women with child, is being amplified. Add to that," Nyla lowered her voice, "she loved someone, and Commander Stark is a constant reminder of what she lost. Every single day she must face that, it appears. If you know anything of an Avalonian—"
"They love for life," Ellery sighed miserably. "The Prince searched. There was no evidence of a lover."
"Well, no," Nyla spat scornfully. "The commander removed him years earlier."
A weird sound turned my tear-streaked face to Ellery. His face was red, eyes fierce with anger. "You withdrew from society. Stopped attending balls and only left the estate for your cause. Two years ago, you stopped existing as a woman and started subsisting only in name. You have been grieving all this time."
Blinking the slow blink that I learned from Hartwin, I admitted the truth without vocalizing it.
Ellery cursed. "Does the Prince know?" I blinked again. "Did he arrange it?"
Shaking my head, I hid my face to Nyla's shoulder again, but the sobs quietened. "No, he has been informed only since my coming here. He is my companion. He deserved the truth. Besides, he isn't stupid."
"No," Ellery confirmed, "stupid is one word not used to describe the Prince. I will leave you be, Princess."
Shaking my head, I pushed to standing. Nyla going with me. "I'm done. I'm hungry again and would like to know how long until my companion is ready for bed."
