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I rolled and saw Jorah leaning against a door frame trying her best not to smile. The queen of Wylan. A title she’d never really wished to have in the beginning. And that was exactly why she was perfect for it.
I didn’t feel a keen sense of longing when I saw her anymore. I did, however, feel a large dose of regret wash over me. I had let her down repeatedly, to the point where she would have rather faced the wrath of my father in running away from the castle than continue to stay in my messed-up Assemblage.
I once thought I had loved her. But she had been right. If I truly had, would I have put her through half of the things I had?
Or maybe I had loved her, but I hadn’t been man enough to drop all the court masks and scheming and simply love her. Either way, she was now soul bound to my brother. She was queen. And I’d always love her in a way, but I had also let her go a long, long time ago.
“Thanks for the assist,” I offered. I still found it odd that Jorah and my magic could combine. We were both bonded to Krew, and as a result, our magic could combine, as could the three of us together. And since she was now bonded to Owen as well, the four of us could combine our magic quite brilliantly the few times we’d all been together and tried it.
“Again!” Warrick repeated next to me. “Please and thank you!”
“The cookie dough is done,” Jorah offered. “If you would all like to have some cookies.”
“Best day ever!” Warrick exclaimed as I grabbed him to put him on his feet, ruffling his hair while I did.
“One little stair slide with your favorite uncle and that’s all it takes?” I asked him.
“Yes—well, you’re my onlyrealuncle. So I suppose you can say that.”
Jorah smiled. “Owen has been encouraging him to call him Uncle Owen as well. He is the closest thing I have to a brother, so I suppose that’s fair.”
They definitely bickered like they were siblings. There were very few souls who could verbally banter Owen Raikes into submission, and Jorah was one of them.
“Bring me back a trinket from Dra Skor, and maybe you can stay my favorite uncle,” Warrick offered with the cutest damn shrug.
“Bribery, Your Highness?!” I put my hand over my heart in faux dramatics.
“Hey, it’s rather effective,” he said plainly.
Krew and I burst out laughing.
“He’s not wrong,” Jorah admitted. “That’s why my cookies are so effective.”
In glancing at the family before me, Warrick, Krew, and Jorah, you would clearly see that Warrick was not Jorah’s son. The dark hair and blue eyes were Krew’s, even the nose and jawline. His skin was two shades darker than mine and Krew’s, Jorah’s another shade or two lighter than ours. Still, I had never seen a healthier family than the one standing before me. Warrick’s mother had been lost to our father’s cruelty, but because of who Jorah was, he still had a mother.
There had been whispers after the announcement of Warrick’s true lineage, what Jorah would do and how she would handle an heir she hadn’t bore, but it had only taken a few weeks for those rumors to die out. Nerede was sure to say to whoever doubted it that Jorah and Warrick had known each other well before either of them went to live at the castle. And anyone with eyes could see how much Jorah loved that boy.
As the four of us headed to have fresh cookies, I determined that blood was highly overrated. My twin brother was blood and I loved him with everything I had. But our father had also been blood and though that powerful royal bloodline had gifted us with strong magic and certain privileges, our father had often hurt us far more than helped us. You didn’t get to choose your family, and yet, looking at Warrick, Krew, and Jorah, it seemed you did. Though I was jaded from my father, I thought that chosen families were far more powerful than blood.
I often felt like I kept looking around corners when I visited this castle. I had watched my father die, all life fade from his eyes. I knew with absolute certainty he was gone, yet I was convinced there was still some messed up lesson he wanted to bestow upon us. He was gone, but I was so used to trying to outthink his power-hungry moves, that it was hard to believe it was all really over.
But I guessed it wasn’t yet. We were still cleaning up his messes, trying to get a few steps ahead.
Still, this time it felt good to be back in the castle. Kavan Keep hadn’t felt like home for me since the Assemblages started and we were invaded in the name of pomposity and balls, but I had hope that eventually it could feel that way again.
This wasn’t the life I had always imagined for myself, but as long as it was a life without Theon Valanova, it was a worthwhile one.
CHAPTER3
The sea stretched before me as far as I could see, an endless rolling blue expanse. Other than the captain hollering orders to a few of the crew, all I could hear was the water sliding against the side of our ship.
Later this afternoon we would arrive in Dra Skor. It took two days and one night of sailing to get there. And though it had certainly taken me a moment to get my sea legs, I wasn’t sure Emric was ever going to get his. I’d given in a few hours into the trip and put a shield of magic around him, trying to steady the motion to keep him from getting sick. Either he or I had to keep it up, or he was back to looking quite squeamish. I had never seen his brown skin look as pale as he had this entire trip.
“Are we there yet?” he groaned.
I refrained from rolling my eyes. You thought you knew a person, and then you traveled with them and truly found out all their annoying habits. Emric’s wasn’t that he wasn’t feeling well, as that was not his fault at all, it was rather that he did not respect silence. In fact, he seemed to have something against it entirely.
“Your Highness,” John said, striding over to us, “I have gathered the guards. Let’s grab Archer and have a quick meeting.”
