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Her lips parted at what he revealed. Rush had tried to break the spell but couldn’t… Did that change anything when he was the one who’d cast it? But somehow it did, even if it was only a sliver, a crack. A crack that could spread until it opened fully.
Aura thought about it, truly thought about how she’d been feeling the past two days. The tiredness, the exhaustion, her forcing herself not to fall asleep. “I don’t have much time left. I can feel it. My body wanting to collapse, to shut down.” She remembered the duke and his awful nephew, how they’d almost stuffed her inside their carriage. If she fell asleep in the gardens, it would be too easy for someone to steal her away. She shuddered at the thought. Although she wouldn’t admit it aloud, perhaps it was better she stay here for a bit longer. “But as soon as the king returns, if I’m still awake, he will open the door and talk to me properly.”
Astor’s lips tilted up a fraction. “Yes,Your Highness. Now finish eating. I’m to keep you company until the king returns.” He took a seat at the edge of the bed and drew out a puzzle box from inside his pocket.
Aura hated to admit it, but she didn’t mind his quiet presence. She brought the spoon to her mouth once more, practically inhaling the remainder of the soup from the bowl.
They sat in comfortable silence for a long while until a shout echoed out in the hallway. The click of the lock sounded and Astor stood from the bed in front of her, a blade in his hand. As the door opened, it was one of the guards. Only it wasn’t—he wore a black Moonstone uniform, but he wasn’t one of the guards. She took in his narrow jaw that she’d loved running her fingers across, his high cheekbones she used to kiss, and the deep brown eyes she would study. Now they belonged to a face she would rather not see, one that hid secrets and betrayal beneath that veil. She wanted him dead, the way he’d drowned Sorcha.
Astor charged forward, but the prince moved faster and kicked him in the chest. The shifter stumbled backward, striking his head on the edge of the night table, knocking him out.
Aura snapped out of her frozen state as Pax brought up his blade to stab him in the chest.
“Stop!” she screamed while darting in front of the prince to block him from Astor.
Pax drew the blade back, blinking, his gaze settling on hers.
“What are you doing here?” Aura growled, tightening her fists and taking a step toward him. “You shouldn’t be here.” He should be dead. Rush should’ve killed him. A pit formed in her stomach at what that could mean.
“Is that any way to treat the prince who has come to save you?” His face softened. “I’ve missed you, Aura.”
She would rather be locked away in any other room in this palace than have a conversation with this deceitful man. “Fuck you!” she said between clenched teeth and lunged around him. Before she reached the door, he grabbed her by the waist and yanked her to his firm chest. “Let go of me! Guards!”
“Hush now, we have much to discuss,” Pax pleaded. “I received your letter and whatever the king whispered into your ear were his sinful lies. All of it. You are my betrothed. You were meant to already be my wife. Only you.”
“Yes, while you pleasure everyone else! Get this bastard off me!” she screamed, waiting for Tanix and Laird to rush in with their swords. “The Prince of Starnight is here!”
“No one is going to hear you,” Pax said. “What have they done to you? Why are you looking at me with such loathing? They’ve cast a spell on you to turn you against me.”
Aura’s breath caught. “What did you do to the guards?” Whirling around, she pulled back her arm and slammed her fist into Pax’s face. She slipped from his grasp, fleeing out into the hallway. She stilled when she found Tanix and Laird. They lay in slumped heaps on the floor, bright crimson pooling around them.
“I have other plans for the traitorous king,” Pax ground out. “He thought me a fool, that he could lure me to his court. Buthe’sthe fool.”
Aura ran to Tanix and took the fallen sword beside his dead body, then spun to face the prince. Her arms quaked under the weight of the weapon, but she didn’t drop it. “I know what you did to Princess Constance. Youmurderedher and the child she carried.Yourchild.”
Pax winced and she could see the truth in his expression even if it was only briefly. “I did nothing of the sort. Why would you accuse me of something so heinous? The princess drowned herself.”
Aura held the blade higher—she might not know how to wield it properly, but she would thrust it well enough to sink it into his chest, piercing his deceptive heart. “Even though you knew of our betrothal, you continued to pleasure, to ravish, tofuckother women. You knew Princess Constance was in love with you and you found her an easy target. She was only sixteen, and when you learned she was pregnant, she was of no use to you any longer. You demanded she get rid of your child, and when she didn’t, youmurderedher, you heartless bastard!”
Pax pursed his lips and shook his head. “More lies from the king. He was always jealous that I was betrothed to the most beautiful woman in all the courts. He wanted you for himself, Aura. His sister killed herself because she wanted away fromhim.”
Aura inhaled sharply at the easy way lies fell from his lips as though he believed them himself. “I might be tempted to consider your lies if I hadn’t met the princess myself. If I hadn’t come across her spirit or her journal. But I did. I know everythingyoudid. You even fucked someone on our wedding day, you ass!”
Pax inched toward her, but she didn’t bow down. He tucked his sword into his sheath and held up his hands as if she would lower hers. “No more lies, Aura. I promise. I’ll admit to you everything, but you have to listen to me. I did it forus. Yes, I was a fool then. But I’m a fool no longer. I swear to you this, after our wedding, it would’ve only ever been you. It is only you. I admit I surrendered to temptation, that I had to remove the wedge that could alter our future. It’s all in the past now, and we can keep this a secret between us.”
Aura’s eyes widened in horror. Did he truly believe her to be the naïve girl she used to be? “I will do no such thing, and I won’t pretend as though I will either. Whether that’s foolish on my part or not.” She barreled for him with her blade at the ready, but he easily dodged the blow. He was a trained fighter, skilled for years. However, she threw her arm forward again, this time stabbing him in the shoulder.
Ignoring the blood blooming to the surface, Pax growled and swung his uninjured arm, then knocked the sword from her hands. Before she could slip away, he wrapped his hand around her throat and slammed her against the wall. “Shut that treacherous mouth of yours or all of Starnight will believe you drowned yourself too. You will do as I say. You will obey your future king and husband.”
Aura kneed him in the groin, giving her enough room to escape his grip and flee toward the stairs as she screamed for anyone to hear her. She would’ve easily made it down the steps, but an invisible prick came to her finger, and she knew what that meant.Not now. A wave of exhaustion made her sluggish, her limbs heavy, and she stumbled. Pax yanked her back by the throat and hauled her into his arms as she writhed.
His grip didn’t slacken while he carried her down the steps. At the bottom of the stairs, a woman in a cloak, her dark braids swaying, stood over two other guards slumped on the floor. Orange magic poured out from a staff in her hand.
“Everyone is asleep. You don’t have long before they awaken,” the sorceress warned.
“Besides the two upstairs.” Pax chuckled. “The treasonous king better still be where we left him?”
A sinking feeling stormed through Aura as she focused on the sorceress. “What did you do to him?” she screeched. “Prince Pax is a murderer!”
