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RUAROK

I paceoutside the entrance to the cave.

I listen hard, trying to pick up any sense of what might be happening inside, but it’s like a void and Taelyn has been swallowed by it. I want to yell and shout and break things. I want to fight the other men who are standing around, waiting with me, while we let our princess face the danger.

“She’s been too long,” I say to Balthorne. “We should go after her.”

He shakes his head. “No, she told us to wait.”

“I don’t give a fuck what she said,” I growl. “She could be in danger.”

“She’s trying to save the kingdom.”

“I don’t give a fuck about the kingdom either.She’sall that matters. The rest of it can go to hell.”

I don’t mean that, do I? Isn’t the whole point of my plan that I ruin her and take the kingdom for myself? If she were to die inside that cave, my problem would be solved. I’d be the only heir left to rule.

There is one fatal flaw with my plan. If she doesn't find a way to save the kingdom, there will be no kingdom to rule. That is the only reason I want her to survive. The only reason I’m barely holding back from ignoring commands and tearing into the cave to save her. It has nothing to do with the way I can't get her off my mind, or the way I've become addicted to her scent and the softness of her hair. The reason I spend every waking second trying to find a way to be in her company.

I was the person who suggested she come here. If something happens to her, it’ll be my fault. The knowledge tears at my heart, making it hard for me to breathe.

Movement comes from somewhere deep in the cave, the scraping of footsteps on stone.

“Taelyn?” I call.

She emerges into the light—pale-faced and shaken, but physically unharmed. I don’t think I’ve ever been so relieved to see someone in my entire life. Even when she opened the cage, I wasn’t this happy to see her.

“Thank the gods. You’re safe.”

Automatically, I reach for her, wanting to hold her, and reassure both of us that she’s okay, but she jerks back like I’ve burned her. Of course, we have an audience now, and she’s not going to want me touching her in such an intimate way when others are watching, or perhaps she simply doesn’t want me touching her at all.

“Did you find the Mage?” Balthorne asks.

She takes a deep, shaky breath and nods. “I did.”

I butt in. “What did they say?”

“That in order to stop the rot, there needs to be a sacrifice.”

“What kind of sacrifice?” I ask for clarification. “One of blood?”

She doesn’t meet my eye. “No. They say it needs to be a sacrifice of love.”

Love?“What does that mean?”

“I’m not sure.”

I continued to press her. “Didn’t you ask?”

She snaps her gaze to mine, fire burning in her blue eyes. “Of course, but it isn’t exactly easy to get a straight answer out of someone who’s been living in a cave for a thousand years and who cut out their own eyes so they could see better.”

She’s clearly upset, and I don’t want to push her anymore.

I soften my tone. “The good news is there is a way to stop it.”

She scoffs. “Through love. As if there is such a thing.”