Page 100 of The Throne Seeker (Vallorian #1)

X avier scanned her painfully slow, absorbing every inch of her.

His reaction reminded her just how rare a creature she was.

The way his eyes gently held hers… it was like a moment frozen in time to when they’d first met. When her silly little girlish heart raced, and her skinny knees buckled.

“You’re back,” Rose breathed.

He sauntered toward her with slow, measured strides, not stopping until he was a breath away. Gently, he raised his hand, tracing her cheek with his fingers. “You’re real,” he crooned.

She held her breath, her eyes fluttering up into his.

He’d changed since she last saw him. His dark hair was trimmed now, resting just below his ears. The fitted black tunic clinging to the muscles he’d built during his absence, his face clean-shaven and shadowed by the stable lantern.

His sober, icy-blue eyes penetrated her defenses. “What happened to you? Are you a si?—?”

“Yes.” She was too tired to go into detail. “It was a surprise to me, too.”

“But how? Your father?—”

“Wasn’t my father.” Her sea-green flashed. “My real father was killed before I was born.”

Xavier’s face twisted in confusion. “Why didn’t you tell us?”

“Don’t go feeling too left out. I only just found out myself,” she retorted cooly.

He took in the information with a slight pause, accepting her answer even though a thousand more questions lingered just beyond his lips.

She changed the subject. “What were you doing in Amernth?”

“I was with Malcolm,” he said, referring to his best friend. “He and I have been traveling together.”

Her mind cut back to the moment she thought she spotted him hidden among the trees. “And you’ve been there this entire time? You never came back?”

Xavier’s brow quirked with questioning eyes. “How could I? I was banished.”

Her eyes penetrated his, searching them. She couldn’t be sure if he was lying, but her siren senses couldn’t detect a whiff of deceit coming from him. It was enough to satisfy her, so she let go of the subject.

For now.

Rose shrugged, playing it off. “Nothing. I just wondered where you’d been spending your newfound freedom.”

Xavier glanced over her shoulder to Onyx. “How in Vallor did you come by a sleipnir? And how’d you tame it enough to ride?” He sounded both impressed and intrigued.

Me? Tamed? I think not. Tell him I’m just as dangerous as ever, Onyx said, puffing his chest.

A smile spread across her face, earning her an annoyed glare from Xavier, who didn’t understand what was so amusing.

“He says I didn’t tame him. He lets me ride him because he chooses to,” she summarized.

Xavier’s widened eyes flitted back and forth between them. “You can speak to him?”

“I can—part of my siren’s abilities, I think.”

“May I?” He gestured to Onyx.

Rose arched an eyebrow. A bold request. Nonetheless, she stepped aside.

He stepped forward to Onyx, stretching a steady hand out to touch him, but just before Xavier’s hand reached him, Onyx jerked his head. Xavier quickly withdrew.

Onyx let out what she knew to be a chuckle. Humans are so skittish, Onyx said, amused.

She rolled her eyes. “He’s only teasing. He won’t do it again,” she emphasized pointedly at Onyx.

Xavier didn’t look so sure, but to his credit, he reached out again.

This time, Onyx allowed it.

Xavier’s rigid body relaxed as he admired the beast. “So he stays with you? Willingly?”

“Yes. For some reason or another, he thinks he owes me for saving his life.”

That’s because I do, Onyx said, and I suppose I’ve grown fond of your two-legged awkwardness.

She smiled again.

“How’d you manage that?” Xavier asked. The curiosity in his gaze brought back memories of when he got a telescope for his twelfth birthday. It warmed her to see a glimpse of his old self.

“It’s a long story,” she replied.

He observed her again, his eyes stopping on the handcrafted sword on her back. “Where’d you get the sword?”

She glanced over her shoulder at the hilt. “Zareb gave it to me.”

His eyes sparked with intrigue. “The soldier from Semaria? Why would he do that?”

“He trained me with it. We grew to be close friends, he and I.” Her voice was strained—the sting of Zareb’s absence still fresh.

Xavier didn’t say anything for a moment, his eyes remaining on the sword, then they met hers. “You any good?” A slight tug raised the corner of his lips.

She blinked, staring at the smile. She fumbled for words, surprised by his playfulness. “Test me, and you might just find out.”

Xavier’s mouth widened to a full smile. “Always the smart-ass.”

She stared in shock. She hadn’t seen that enchanted sight in years . Her heart pulsed; she was relieved to see he remembered how to use the muscles.

“It’s good to see you smile,” she said softly, lifting her gaze from his lips to his eyes.

“To tell you the honest truth, I thought I forgot how…” He glanced to the open stable doors. “Were you really going to charge into the night to find me?”

She shifted her weight to lean against the wooden pen. “I was considering it, for your mother’s sake.”

He frowned. “You doubted I’d come?”

“We were beginning to wonder… You do have a habit of running,” she added, her voice harboring bitterness.

Xavier’s mouth tightened into a thin line. “I’ve made my fair share of mistakes, but I wouldn’t miss the opportunity to say goodbye to her. Even if it does mean I have to share the same air as my brother.”

It wasn’t hard to discern the malice in his tone. This was getting ridiculous. “Don’t you think this feud has gone on long enough? I don’t know what happened between you two, but?—”

“That’s right. You don’t,” he said, his voice as cold as winter snow.

Rose dropped the subject. Her eyes shifted away, pressing her lips together to avoid snapping back. He respected her not wanting to elaborate on how she was a siren, so she would respect his boundaries, too.

He cleared his throat, folding his arms tightly across his chest as he shifted uncomfortably. An icy steel wall formed in his eyes. “By the way, I never got to say congratulations.”

Her head tilted, confused. “Congratulations?”

“On the wedding,” he said, obviously. “I couldn’t make it, of course—being exiled and all. Not that I would have come anyway.”

Her mind ran in circles, trying to decipher what he meant. “What?”

His icy eyes grew irritated. “Tristan.” He spat his name through his teeth. “I’m not a fool. I do know what an invitation looks like.”

Rose paused.

He didn’t know?

Xavier’s expression became hard as she gawked at him. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

She opened her mouth only to close it again. “No one… no one told you?”

“Told me what?” he asked.

She blinked as the realization set in. He really had no idea. “Xavier… Tristan and I never got married.”

A tense silence followed. Now it was his turn to stare. Nothing but the sound of shuffling hooves and popping torches filled the air.

His iceberg eyes melted into a river. He slowly unfolded his arms. “What?” he whispered.

Her throat bobbed. “We didn’t get married,” she repeated.

“You didn’t… you didn’t marry him?” His voice was raw. Hesitant.

She shook her head.

Xavier’s expression flipped like a coin. He drew closer, shadows dancing across his sharp cheekbones. “Who did he marry?”

She couldn’t hold his gaze. “The Vertmerian princess, Satin… She’s with child.” Her voice cracked, having to say it aloud.

“Why didn’t you marry him?” he asked, monitoring her reaction carefully.

The question stung sharper than it should have. “Does it matter?”

He took another step closer. “It matters a great deal.”

She gazed back up into his eyes. The look he was giving her… it was like the information had… changed something for him. “There were a lot of reasons I ended things.”

“ You ended it?” he clarified.

She nodded again.

His lips parted as his face inched to hers, holding her gaze with a new tenderness. “I didn’t know. If I did… Gods, I’m sorry, I should’ve been there.” He reached out to her?—

She knew that look.

She swiped his hand away, stepping back. Her young heart screeched in rebellion, sensing his hurt before it spread onto his face.

But she was hurt, too.

“You’re right,” she said with as cold a voice as she could muster. “You should have. But you didn’t want to be.”

His face twitched with regret. “I know, and I hate myself for what I did to you.”

She kept him pinned under her scrutinizing gaze. “And like an idiot, I forgave you. Almost immediately, I forgave you. I hate how you made me believe it was my fault you lost the crown, but now I find it’s exactly what you wanted all along.”

Xavier’s eyes faltered as if he couldn’t stand her disappointment.

“Why?” she demanded, raising her voice even as it cracked. “Why couldn’t you love me back? What about me was so repulsive to you?”

The question broke him. Like a bolt of lightning, he trapped her with his body against the wooden post, forcing her inches away from his face.

“Damn it, Rose, don’t you get it? I do love you,” he declared onto her lips, sliding his hand into her hair and gripping a handful.

“Just as the ocean reaches for the shore, I’ve reached for you.

Even though I try to retreat, I just come rushing back to you in a relentless, vicious cycle.

One that’s so mesmerizing I couldn’t stop it even if I wanted to.

Even with the thousands of miles between us, you haunt my dreams, plaguing my mind—every breath, every thought.

I love you more than you can possibly imagine.

I’ve known I loved you from the moment I laid eyes on you. ”

For some reason, his confession only made her more angry.

“Then why?” Rose asked, her sharp voice cutting through the air with a vengeance.

“Why didn’t you say anything when I told you I was in love with you?

Why did you tell me it was a childish notion, that I was too young to know what love was?

Why did you make me believe I was an idiot for even thinking it? ”

“Because Tristan was in love with you, too!” Xavier yelled.