Page 16

My voice dropped to a whisper. "It feels like coming home. Like how you told me you felt when you met Mother."

Home. A concept I'd never fully understood until I'd caught Sierra's scent, until I'd felt the pull toward her that defied explanation.

"She's my fated mate, Father. I'm sure of it. And I think she might be the key to everything you've worked toward. The union of realms. The peace that's always slipped through your fingers. She's Rowen's mate as well as that of his second, Archer."

I leaned forward, resting my elbows on the edge of the bed. "I wish you could meet her. She'd probably challenge you to your face." A huff of laughter escaped me. "And I'd pay good money to see that."

Outside, thunder rumbled across the sky. A sky that had been clear when I arrived. The realm responding to its king'sfailing life force. Magic was breaking down, the natural order destabilizing.

"I'm afraid," I admitted, the words so quiet they barely existed. "I'm afraid of losing you. I'm afraid of what comes after. I'm not ready to rule, Father. I never wanted the throne."

The weight of impending responsibility pressed down on my shoulders. I'd spent centuries avoiding court politics, preferring to move through the shadows, observing rather than participating. First Darius had died. Now, my mother was gone and my father was slipping away, and the damned crown would fall to me. The only child of my father.

"I don't know how to be a king," I confessed. "I don't know how to hold this realm together when it's already falling apart. I should have listened to you sooner. Taken more of your advice to heart. Learned more about the kingdom and our people."

My eyes burned, a sensation so unfamiliar it took me a moment to recognize it for what it was. Tears. I couldn't remember the last time I'd cried. Maybe never. I'd been so concerned for my father that I barely mourned the loss of my mother. Now it hit me with the force of a tsunami.

"If you can hear me, if you can give me some sign, some guidance..." My voice broke. Fuck. I hated how utterly weak I sounded.

The silence stretched on, heavy and oppressive. I closed my eyes, trying to center myself, to find that cold detachment I'd perfected over the centuries.

Then, so faint I almost missed it, a pressure against my fingers.

My eyes flew open. My father's hand had tightened around mine. And his eyes, those pale green eyes so similar to my own, were open, focused on me with startling clarity.

"Callum," he rasped, his voice like stone grinding against stone.

"Father." I surged forward, my free hand moving to support his shoulder. "Don't try to move. I'll call the healers."

"No." The single syllable was filled with the authority that had commanded armies. "No healers. My time has come."

"Don't say that," I argued, panic rising in my chest. "We can find a way."

"There is no way, my son." His lips curved into a smile tinged with sadness. "I go to join your mother. Both of us finally able to join Darius. It is the way of things."

"But the realm?—"

"Will have you," he interrupted. "A stronger ruler than I ever was."

I shook my head, denying his words even as they settled over me like a mantle. "I'm not ready."

"None of us are ever ready." He coughed, a terrible sound that shook his entire body. When he recovered, there was a smear of darkness at the corner of his mouth—not blood, but pure magic leaking from his essence. "Tell me more about her. This Sierra."

The request caught me off guard, but I obliged, grateful for any reason to keep him talking, to keep him with me.

"She's..." I searched for words that could possibly encompass all that she was. "Vibrant. Stubborn. Dangerous in ways she doesn't even realize yet. She's been through so much, but it hasn't broken her. Not even close."

My father's eyes gleamed with interest. "And you believe she's your fated mate?"

"I know it," I said with a certainty that surprised even me. "Every instinct I have recognizes her. Being near her is like finding a piece of myself I didn't know was missing."

"Then she is the future," my father said solemnly. "Your future. The realm's future."

"What do you mean?"

He shifted slightly, wincing with the effort. "I have tried for centuries to unite our worlds. To bring the Fae realms together with the human realm, with the demon territories. Always, I have failed."

I knew this history well. My father's grand vision had been peace across all realms, a unification that would strengthen magic everywhere. He'd fought wars over it, signed treaties that were later broken, made alliances that crumbled under the weight of ancient prejudices.