Page 41

twenty-five

T he evening was bound to be awkward. This was the path we’d chosen and I couldn’t avoid the repercussions of my actions, even if I wanted to.

For the sake of appearances, Galen showed up to dinner first. I took a few deep breaths before the guards ushered me in.

Queen Sylvia sat at the head of the table as usual.

Louis, Galen, Isla, and Dahlia were also in attendance.

I sighed with relief; at least some of the dinner guests had decided to opt out tonight. I sat by Louis, across from Isla.

“What a pleasure for you both to join us. You preferred not to have your midnight rendezvous in the dungeons tonight?” Sylvia’s menacing glare was fixed on Galen; she didn’t even bother looking at me. I watched Isla’s face fall and felt a pang of guilt.

“If I must remind you, Mother, I’m sitting by Isla this evening. Please treat her with the respect she deserves.”

I hadn’t expected him to sound so convincing; this was going to be difficult to sit through.

The first course appeared and I began sipping on a cold soup of leeks and potato.

I avoided the gaze of, well… everyone . I glanced at Louis, who seemed to be thoroughly enjoying himself.

Dahlia, on the other hand, looked as tightly wound as her braided coiffure.

“Are we back to courting Isla then? After your display the other week of insisting you’d be dancing with Marigold at the Hyacinth Festival, I assumed you’d lost interest in poor Isla. Men are such fickle beasts.” She gave a bored smile directed at the other women at the table.

“You act as if sex and courtship are mutually exclusive. Would you like me to share your long list of consorts with the table? Or perhaps, we can find someone to court you,” Galen said with a cool calm. The Queen gave him a look that would’ve turned lesser men to stone.

Louis apparently had a death wish, because he chimed in next.

“I must’ve missed something… Galen, you’re courting Isla, but sleeping with Marigold?

A bold choice, brother. I shall love to see how this plays out for you.

” I was tempted to aim frost where it would hurt him most, but the chances of hitting the Queen instead were too high.

“Is it not my right, as future King, to enjoy myself before I marry? Do we not eat several courses this very evening for the sake of variety?” My blush reached my ears and I didn’t dare look at Isla.

This was going worse than I could’ve imagined.

I would’ve gladly accepted conversation of the weather, of court gossip—any meaningless drivel would’ve been better than this.

I was the court gossip. I was going to die from humiliation.

“I, for one, don’t care.” Isla shocked me back to life with her words.

Shooting a smug smirk my way, she continued, “She may have him for a few weeks, but I’ll have him for eternity.

We all have our fun with humans—they have their perks, after all—but we know better than to fall in love with them.

” An icy breeze blew my hair away from my face as I fought to control my anger.

To imply that I was just his source… Frost crept up my wrists like vines along a tree branch. I shoved my hands into my lap to hide it, but the ice continued to spread up my arms. The air grew cold around us as I fought the impulse to claim what was mine .

Isla blew out a foggy swirl of breath and flashed me a look of satisfaction; she’d successfully gotten under my skin. Louis kicked me under the table, sending a clear message: Keep it together . And then I remembered what was at stake and began to breathe again.

Galen sent a supercilious smile to Isla that I’d never seen him use.

“Thank you, Isla, for being the only rational one at this table.” I wanted his mask to fall, just for a moment, to let me know that this was killing him too.

I could read nothing from his— my —golden uhra.

“I’m glad we’ve all come to an understanding,” Sylvia said.

The rest of the meal was silent. Or perhaps, I just chose not to listen.

Back in my room, I sat in front of the hearth, waiting for Galen.

He was walking Isla to her quarters and taking too long.

Was she trying to seduce him? This was messier than I could’ve imagined.

I heard a click of the door and then saw Galen smiling down at me.

I ran to him and he enveloped me in a big hug.

“That was terrible,” I confessed. He had a bottle of wine and poured me a glass, settling beside me in front of the fire.

He groaned. “It was. She tried to get me to stay the night. I explained to her that while she was the accepted choice of the council, you are my choice. And until the engagement is official, I’ll be spending my time with you.” He slung back his wine, draining the glass, then poured more.

The thought of them locked in an intimate embrace—Isla trying to pull him into her room… I looked down to find my cup covered in frost and took a generous sip. We both looked at each other and finished our drinks.

“How did she take it? She’s okay… sharing you?” I tried to sound nonplussed, even as my insides roiled.

In Erador, marriages of convenience were common amongst royalty, which meant so were affairs.

They were private though… to admit to one would be to fall from grace.

If anyone was the mistress in this situation, it was me, and I hated what it implied about me, about us.

Our relationship was only a small seedling, struggling to take root, and it felt as if it was already getting stomped on.

“She accepted it. She’s not pleased, but she won’t make a fuss. She wants the Crown, not me.” He set down his glass and stood. He prowled over to me and put an arm on each side of my chair, caging me in.

He leaned down for a kiss, but I pulled away to ask, “So the plan is to tell her the courtship is off, once I’ve learned how to world walk?

And then you think the council will accept us?

” Even more reason to leave for the Oracle right away.

I didn’t want to be the other woman. To be with Galen, I’d have to swallow my pride—something I didn’t think I’d ever willingly do for a man.

“Yes. I think when they have a world walker available to them for the first time in two-hundred years, they’ll be glad to make you our future Queen .”

I didn’t want to be their Queen, but he kissed me again and I let my thoughts fade. He lifted me up from the chair and carried me to the bed, trailing kisses along my collar bone, seducing me slowly. Each sweet brush of his lips stoked the embers that were burning in my core.

“What exactly is the Hyacinth Festival?” I asked, my voice catching as his mouth roamed.

“It’s a dance. Similar to your Debut, I’d imagine.”

I sat up, pushing him off. “It’s a courtship ball? Why would I be invited? I’m not Fae royalty.” My chest tightened. A dance was bad enough; a dance with blood-drinking faeries, worse ; but a dance where I had to watch Galen court another woman all night? I was definitely not going.

He sighed. “You’re our guest. We’re trying to acclimate you to this world—to our people.

You’re someone who is very important to me…

to the Fae. Gifts like yours don’t just show up at random.

They’re bestowed by the gods. And if I have it my way, you will be royalty…

soon enough.” He went back to kissing me, then his fingers were at the nape of my neck, undoing the buttons of my dress.

I was starting to spin, like I’d had one too many glasses of wine.

I had to tell him who I was before this went any further.

I already was promised to a throne. I couldn’t be his future Queen.

“Galen, I… I have a very big fear of parties—of crowds.” I felt his lips brushing along my spine and I shivered.

Gods , it was hard to concentrate with his hands on me…

My voice came out an octave higher as I said, “It hasn’t come up because, well… it hasn’t had to. I can’t tell you what a relief it’s been to get a break from the constant social events... They were never ending in Aurelius.”

He stopped undressing me when he heard the panic that laced my voice. “You lived in a castle full of court gatherings… and you have a fear of crowds? How did this come about? How did you function?”

I had to tell him . If we were going to give this a real shot, then our relationship needed to begin with a foundation of honesty.

Would he see me as his enemy once he knew who I was?

I could be making a catastrophic mistake.

Rafael had warned me not to tell anyone, but Raf was also an ass , who’d attacked his own brother.

“When I was ten, my family and I were at the castle visiting my aunt, Queen Ophelia, for the annual ball.” I paused to search his gaze, which stayed patiently locked on me.

“I saw my mother collapse in the middle of the crowd. She was poisoned… Sh-she died in minutes.” I felt so vulnerable telling him, that hot tears sprung up .

“My father left that evening and I never saw him again. The Queen took me under her wing from that day forward. I still panic when I’m in a crowd.

I get light-headed, overwhelmed… sometimes I faint.

I haven’t danced at a ball. Ever. In fact, the reason I ended up here was because I ran away from my Debut.

Like a coward. I’d planned to just get some air, but then I… ended up here.”

I was trusting him with the sharpest shards of my soul—shame that whispered over and over that it had somehow been my fault . Why else would my father have left?

Galen pulled me onto his lap and cradled me for the second time in two days. “Your ancestors took over Aurelius after my family left,” he said slowly. He looked pensive as he processed what I was telling him.