Page 113 of 2 Books in One Bundle

‘We haven’t seen you in a while.’ His friend snapped his gaze to Helia. ‘But I guess you have been busy. Your Majesty.’

Stavros inclined his head, a familiar smirk painted on his lips. It had never bothered Vasili before, but now he wanted to shove Helia behind him. Be her shield until the lot of them left.

‘It’s a pleasure to meet you,’ Helia said pleasantly.

No, it was not. Not to him. These were the people he’d partied with. Nobility. Members of the highest echelons of society. But he couldn’t deny he hated seeing Helia interact with them.

‘Why so tense, Your Majesty?’ Stavros asked.

Normally the man’s inability to take anything seriously entertained him. Not today.

Vasili pressed Helia further into his side. ‘Maybe I don’t like you talking to my wife.’

‘Territorial?’ Stavros laughed.

Anger bloomed in his chest. Not at Stavros, but at himself. Because the man was right. Vasili didn’t like seeing Helia with these people because they reflected the ugliest parts of himself. He was selfish. Not worthy of anything meaningful. The women of before had known not to expect a relationship with him. He hadn’t cared about their feelings. He’d been out for a good time. Which made him no better than Stavros or any of the men now talking to his wife. They weren’t his friends. He didn’t have any of those. None of these people had contacted him after Leander’s death. None of them had reached out when he had married or taken the throne.

And he hadn’t missed any of them.

Realisation dawned that he wasn’t even worthy of the most superficial, disposable affection. Of affection of any sort. He had learned that over and over with his parents and now he learned it again.

‘You’re damn right, I am.’

‘Never thought I’d see the day...’

Helia was no longer paying attention to the group of men they were talking to. Her heart had hammered in her chest as Stavros’s words had landed. Vasili had lived a very different life from her own. He had been with women so unlike her. None of whom he felt anything for. And even though she was his wife, she wasn’t any different—because now she was in his bed. She got to enjoy his touches and his attention, and to a certain degree, his support. But nothing more.

‘I too was once young and in love.’

Except Queen Arianna was wrong. Vasili didn’t love her.Shehad been the one to break the rules.Shehad been the one to fall in love. And all she’d got in return was an increasingly lonely existence. Because she realised now that she had always craved having someone to love and to love her back. She wanted Vasili to love her back...but he had said so many times that he couldn’t do that.

She didn’t want to spend her life pining for the man in her bed, wanting him in a way that she couldn’t have. She wanted more.

And in that moment her crown fell away. All the people disappeared. She was alone in a dark, quiet palace, seeing for the first time what she would really have in the long life ahead of her.

No one.

And she couldn’t keep pretending that everything was fine as she had been doing all night.

Helia knew then what she had to do. It would take strength, but she had already proved to everyone—including herself—just how strong she was. She’d wanted to be there for Vasili, and she had been, but now it was time to choose herself.

Helia pulled herself back to the present. To the music and lights and people and took control.

‘All good kings are territorial, are they not?’ Helia said pleasantly. ‘They have entire kingdoms to protect.’

Vasili’s hand squeezed hers at her side.

‘End of an era, then, I guess,’ Stavros said, making a show of sliding his hands into his pockets. ‘I would say you will be missed, but I’m greedy, so there’s just more for us.’

‘Have at it. I’ve grown tired of the scene anyway. I have more important things to concern myself with.’

‘Enjoy the banquet,’ Helia said, before any of them could say any more. ‘If you’ll excuse us?’

She walked hand in hand with Vasili through the room until she found Andreas.

‘We will be leaving now,’ she told him. ‘Do what you need to.’

He looked between her and Vasili, nodded once, and set off.