Page 37 of Revert (The Royal Chronicles #4)

“Are you frightened?” he asked quietly.

I shook my head. Though I had every reason to be, fear for myself had dulled in his presence…though another had risen to take its place. “Will there be any unforeseen consequences for publicly siding with one His Majesty has deemed his enemy?”

He slowed, eyebrows raising in surprise. “Are you worried for me?”

My cheeks flushed as I looked away, but the warmth of my blush was nothing compared to the heat of his touch as he gently hooked his fingers beneath my chin, guiding my gaze back to his. His dark eyes held mine, awash in a tenderness so deep I thought I might drown in it.

“Even if you ordered it, I have no intention of leaving your side. I was able to accommodate your wishes for the duration of our courtship these past five years, but in this instance I can’t.”

His meaning settled over me. “You’ve been avoiding me…because you thought that’s what I wanted?”

He hesitated. “Partially. I know you don’t enjoy spending time with me, but I can’t entrust your safety to anyone else.”

“That’s not true.” I blinked, surprised by the unexpected words…and what they revealed. Somewhere between the death that had sent me back and this moment, the fear and resentment I once harbored had changed, reverted. Without realizing it, I had begun to want to be near him.

Something about this stirred the edge of a forgotten feeling—something buried deep that didn’t quite belong.

But before I could name it, he extended his hand—not as a prince, not as a protector, but as something else entirely.

A silent invitation I didn’t understand, only that it felt like a beginning.

A sense of rightness settled over me as his fingers curled securely around mine.

I remembered the first time he held my hand.

It had been brief—a quiet moment in the library, away from watching eyes.

He’d reached for me without thinking, our fingers brushing, then lacing.

For a heartbeat, something warm flickered between us, startling in its tenderness.

In that moment, the weight of the court seemed to lift, and I saw not the prince I’d been sent to marry, but the man behind the crown—someone unexpectedly gentle, someone I might one day come to understand.

It was the beginning of something I hadn’t dared to hope for in Thorndale’s cold, watchful halls…

a hint of something far more beautiful than I’d imagined when I first arrived.

But the moment passed, vanishing like breath on glass.

By the next day, he was distant again…but there was something different about this distance—not cold and foreboding, almost shy.

He made no mention of what had transpired, as if it had never happened at all…

even as it was a moment I was desperate to recapture.

The strange vision shattered. But unlike the previous times, the broken pieces that lay scattered around me were larger and more clear, enough that I could still see key details.

I tried to assemble them in a fractured whole, but I couldn’t make sense of the fragments, flashes I couldn’t tell were memories or illusions.

A new fear different than the usual terror that permeated the Thorndale court took root.

I had accepted the time reversal too easily, been so consumed by the need to avoid my death that I hadn’t stopped to ask the most dangerous question of all: what if the timeline didn’t just change the world around me, but had changed me too?

Because I was remembering things I knew had never happened—moments so vivid they couldn’t be imagined, but impossible to place. These flashes were becoming more frequent and more intense, and at the center of every single one was Castiel.

The wisps of the vision were fading. I tried to grasp them, but they slipped further out of reach as a sudden sharp pain lanced through my temples. I gasped, clutching my forehead.

“Are you alright, Bernice?” Castiel hovered protectively beside me, his hand featherlight against my back.

I managed a nod. “For a moment, I thought I saw—” But I had no words to describe it, other than the strangest sense of nostalgia. I shook my head. “Nevermind.”

An intensity I couldn’t name filled his expression. He searched my face with a look like he wanted to press me, or as if there was something hidden that he was desperate to reclaim.

“Are you sure you’re alright?” he asked softly. “Do you want to go back?” The usual mask had been stripped away, revealing a voice and expression filled with concern.

The pulsing headache was subsiding now, enough for me to stare up at him. “No, I want to remain with you.”

It was a mystery that had followed me like a shadow since the moment I woke in this altered timeline, growing heavier with each deviation from the path I remembered. This was a world where Castiel was no longer my enemy…a truth I wasn’t sure how to hold, much as I wanted to explore it.

Every glance. Every touch. Every unspoken word begged questions I hadn’t dared ask…until now, as if every interaction he’d been finding keys to unlock these feelings that were both new and familiar from wherever they were hiding.

I wasn’t sure what waited for me at the end of this unraveling path—but I was done pretending. Something had shifted between us, and I was finally ready to face it.