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Chapter Twenty-Two

VAARIN

T halia sleeps deeply, soft lips parted, dark hair spread on the pillows like inky rivers. I lie with her for a while, lightly stroking her shoulder. Her skin is so soft and silken, and I harden at the memory of it beneath me, of the feel of her grip around my cock.

I want her again, but she needs rest. I must curb my ravenous appetite. I press a kiss to her temple and climb out of bed. It will be dawn soon, and it is rare that I have the chance to watch the sun rise.

I pull on my pants and shirt and head up to the deck barefoot.

The icy air tinged with salt is food for my soul. I breathe it in and tip my face up to drink in the moisture in the air.

There was a time in my youth when I would journey to the surface simply to watch the dawn, but that joy faded over time. I became jaded. The pressures of court, of protecting my kingdom, of alliances and treaties—and then Chorles’s betrayal.

The memory still stings to this day.

He was the brother I never had. My confidant, my closest friend. I trusted him with my life, would have given him anything he desired. If only he had come to me and confessed his feelings for Evya. It wasn’t as if he hadn’t known how cold our union was. I’d confided in him, of course. But he’d lied and deceived, and his only excuse once caught in his subterfuge had been that I hadn’t loved her anyway.

True. But she’d been my wife. I did not love her in the way she required, but I cared for her. There was fondness between us.

Would I have ordered his death if the affair had remained between the three of us? Would my ire have been less if no one else had known? Being with Thalia has unlocked doubts where there was only steely conviction. Being in love is changing me, and for the first time in forever, I’m afraid. Not of being in love but of losing this feeling.

Far on the horizon, the sky is gray. The sun will rise soon enough, and in a few hours, we will see land.

Dylon will undoubtedly be relieved to be excused from the betrothal, and the people will rejoice to know that their king has found his heart’s desire in the very same woman that will return fertility to their lands, for it is surely a sign that the curse is not infallible. That it is weakening.

There is hope for us all.

The sky is tinged red as the sun awakens, and the ocean, gray and cold, begins to come to life. The dappling of tiny islands that make up the Lone Isles come into view. The mass is so small that I doubt it is on any map, and the land is nothing but sand. Uninhabitable, but wait…What is that? There is someone on the beach.