Page 24 of Revert (The Royal Chronicles #4)
My breath caught. He was so close, his eyes darker than I’d ever seen them. For one suspended, trembling moment, the world narrowed to the space between us—to the unbearable pull of something I couldn’t name, yet felt burrowing into my rapidly pounding heart.
Instinct should have told me to pull away.
Instead, I leaned in, drawn by a sense of familiar rightness I couldn’t explain, as if my soul recognized something my mind had long forgotten.
His breath mingled with mine, and for the briefest flicker of time, I could almost remember something warm yet lost. A feeling like déjà vu shimmered between us, fragile and fleeting, leaving my heart aching, as though it knew a story my memory did not.
His breath hitched and he stilled. A war of conflicting emotions raged in his eyes, longing and restraint locked in a silent battle I couldn’t begin to read.
With a sharp breath, his shoulders stiffened and he slowly pulled back, the walls slamming into place as if to seal away whatever had nearly broken through.
Almost reluctantly, his hand fell away. The moment his touch left, I noticed its absence.
“Forgive me. I shouldn’t have—” He didn’t finish, as if part of him still lingered in the stolen moment he had just ended.
My thoughts and feelings tangled in chaotic turmoil, impossible to unravel when I was still reeling from the realization that should have horrified me: that the man I’d believed to be indifferent had appeared to want to kiss me.
And worse, I had nearly welcomed it. I tried to excuse it, telling myself that anything the prince wanted was as good as an order.
But there had been no command in that moment, no coercion… only my own inexplicable desires.
“What was that?” I whispered, breathless. I wasn’t sure I wanted the answer, lest I be forced to confront the dangerous shifting feelings I wasn’t at all prepared for.
He released a slow, exhausted breath. “ That …was something shouldn’t have happened.” Yet he didn’t look away, his usually unreadable gaze lingering on my mouth with a rawness that made my heart clench.
He drew back further, setting a careful distance between us, as if to remove himself from the path of temptation. “You need to be careful, Bernice.”
“Because you know firsthand how dangerous the one I’m trapped here with is?”
Like shutters closing, the light in his expression dimmed. “Not everything in this court is as it seems…including me.”
My heart thudded. “Castiel?—”
“I’m warning you.” His voice hardened. “Don’t push into shadows you’re not ready to see the end of.”
And just like that, the moment between us was gone. For one fragile heartbeat, it had felt almost real…and then like always, he slipped away.
His jaw tightened as he averted his gaze, as if afraid to keep looking at me.
But then, as if unable to resist, he stole a fleeting glance.
His hand curled into a fist at his side, a visible effort to anchor himself.
“It would be best to get away from temptation,” he said quietly, his voice strained. “We should leave before we’re missed.”
It was astonishing how quickly warmth could turn to ice. “What do you mean?” I asked carefully. “How can we leave when we’re still trapped?”
That was when I saw it—the faint, telling crack in his composure. His mouth parted, as if scrambling for an explanation, but after a moment, his shoulders slumped in defeat. He slowly withdrew a single key from his pocket.
For a moment, I could only stare, my arms folded tightly across my chest in a vain attempt to hold myself together as my mind spun.
Then, in a single breathless moment, it clicked.
The confusing pieces I hadn’t been able to fit: his insistence we run when his own men approached, conveniently leading us to the one room he supposedly couldn’t get out of when the crown prince should have known every escape route in the palace, his sudden urge to disregard his usual silence to talk.
This entire time, he’d had the key to escape. What I had mistaken for a moment of closeness now twisted, manipulation as sharp as betrayal.
I glared at him, heartbeat quickening. “What are you playing at?”
He shifted, almost sheepishly, and lifted his hands in hesitant defense. “It’s not what you’re thinking, Bernice.”
“Then explain it to me.”
“I swear I had no ill intentions,” he said in a rush. “I told you, this room is one of the only safe locations in the palace. I needed to bring you somewhere where we could finally converse away from the king’s eyes and ears.”
Not that we’d had much conversation. A hollow, disbelieving laugh escaped. “If that was your desire, you could have simply ordered me to accommodate. No need for this grand charade. Was this your idea of a cozy outing? Locking your fiancée in an enchanted closet?”
Sarcasm that had previously felt like banter now felt like a shield to my hurt I couldn’t escape, no matter how desperate.
A beat passed before his gaze dropped. “It’s difficult to talk when you seem determined to avoid me.” His voice was soft, almost penitent. “I only wanted…to spend time with you. Whether or not you believe me is your choice.”
My voice sharpened. “You forget: I have no reason to trust you.”
He didn’t argue, didn’t offer empty excuses, nor reach for hollow reassurances.
That quiet restraint was almost more dangerous because it made me want to forgive him.
This vulnerable desire momentarily distracted me, tangling with the echo of his touch and the memory of how close he’d leaned, how close we’d come to?—
I hastily shook the thought away. Enough .
I needed to escape before I did or said anything I would fiercely regret.
I extended my hand expectedly, meeting his gaze squarely.
He hesitated before setting the key gently in my palm.
The brief contact of his fingers against mine sent a jolt through me, the kind that left me burning and furious at myself in equal measure.
I couldn’t get away fast enough. I barely held myself together as I turned sharply, fleeing not only him, but everything he made me feel…emotions that, for a fleeting moment, he’d made me believe were real.
I strode to the door, shoved the key into the lock, and twisted. The lock gave a soft click ; the enchantment trapping us shivered through the walls like an exhale in release. A cold gust of air rushed over me as I stepped into the corridor, a relief I hadn’t known I needed.
For a breath, I thought I heard him move behind me, as if to follow or say something…but no words came. Only silence stretched between us, heavy and raw.
I should have walked away without looking back, but the reckless, aching part of me I most despised couldn’t resist…and turned.
He stood in the doorway, one hand braced tightly against the frame, dark eyes fixed on me with a softness that made my chest tighten. No mask. No coldness. Just a quiet, unspoken ache that reached across the space between us.
“Bernice.” Just my name, nothing more, as if it was the only thing he still wanted to hold on to.
For a fleeting moment I almost whispered his back…before I swallowed the impulse hard. Without another word, I turned away, my breath tight and my steps sharp, something far more dangerous than fury twisting in my chest.
I didn’t look back again, but I felt his lingering gaze long after the distance swallowed me whole.