Page 19

The rest of dinner was a stilted affair, his father making small talk with Ahnna while Virginia attempted to cajole William into conversation. James had said little, his mind all for the conversation that would come later.

Except later was now, and as he closed the drawing room doors behind him, Virginia tasked with returning Ahnna to her rooms, he silently prepared himself for the battle to come.

“You are a goddamned embarrassment to this family!”

Clenching his teeth, James turned to see his father leveling a finger at Will, skin flushed with anger and too much drink.

“Edward, control yourself,” Alexandra snarled, stepping in front of Will. “You will not speak to your son this way.”

“Someone needs to!” his father shouted. “Missing the princess’s arrival, only to show up drunk and then insult her to her face? She’s the twin sister of the king of fucking Ithicana, William. Yet you spoke to her like she was an alehouse barmaid who whores for extra coin. Do you think Aren won’t hear about how you conducted yourself tonight? Do you think there won’t be consequences to the insult you leveled at Ithicana with your behavior?”

Will paled but lifted his chin in defiance. “What consequences would those be, Father? Just what is Ithicana going to do when they hear about my behavior ? Deny us use of the bridge?” He barked out a laugh. “That’s a lark. They need us, not the other way around. We could put her to work in an alehouse if it suited our pleasure, and Ithicana would just close their eyes and think of all the gold flowing into their coffers.”

That Will wasn’t wrong would only irritate their father more. They brought out the worst in each other, and always had.

“A gentleman behaves as a gentleman not only when it serves his own ends but at all times in good company,” his father growled. “She is a princess. A lady of the highest rank. And you spoke to her like a brute!”

“Because she’s not a fucking lady!” Will shouted. “From her own lips, she is a killer and a savage. You would wed me to a beast for the sake of a promise you made almost eighteen years ago!”

Anger prickled James’s skin, and his lips parted to call Will to task, for Ahnna had no more part in writing that treaty than he had. Only for his jaw to snap shut as Alexandra shot him a glare that screamed Shut up, a lifetime of suffering her abuse demanding that James obey.

“Yes, a promise,” his father hissed. “And lest you forget, I am king. My word is law, and you will obey.”

“Already escalated to shouting, have we?” Virginia murmured, having entered in near silence, her elbow bumping against James’s.

“I am abundantly aware that I must obey you, Your Grace.” Will’s slender fingers balled into fists. “Yet for Harendell’s sake, I must point out that your stubborn commitment to your word will result in calamity. If I wed her, she will become queen one day. That woman. As. Harendell’s. Queen.”

“He makes a point, Edward,” Alexandra said. “Our son’s behavior may have been unfitting of his rank, but who can blame him? The woman arrived at a royal banquet in trousers. She uses foul language and threats of violence like a soldier. She’s practically feral, which no one will forget with that ugly scar across her face. And it’s not the only one. The servants have told me that she’s covered with scars. I recognize that is no fault of hers, for that is clearly the life she was forced to live, but it speaks to her upbringing and to her nature. The princess is inappropriate in every possible way for the crown of Harendell. I told you that committing to a marriage alliance was a mistake. I told you that it was better to choose someone whose character we knew, a lady whose character complemented your heir’s and the needs of the nation. But you did not listen, and instead of admitting your mistake and coming to terms with Ithicana’s king for a mutually agreeable solution, you stuck your head in the sand and demanded that we obey.”

“ I told you, I told you, ” his father mimicked, then snatched up another of his drinks and downed it in one gulp. “There is not enough paper in the world to contain all the things you’ve told me to do, Alex. Yet none of your complaints outweigh the very concrete fact that if we don’t keep her, Aren might well use her to secure an alliance with Amarid.”

Alexandra lifted her chin. “You wish a concrete complaint? Fine. I was loath to say it out of respect for another lady, but the Ithicanian princess is too old. William needs a woman who will give him heirs, and at twenty-eight years of age, Ahnna is past her best years. Which I know you are aware of. And the fact that you didn’t request her when she was young, when we might have influenced her character and made a proper lady out of her, suggests to me that you are not as wholly committed to such a close union with Ithicana as you claim.”

Silence stretched, and James clenched his teeth even as he felt his sister’s fingers dig into his arm, both of them knowing what was about to come. As did Will, because he took a nervous step back.

“Or maybe,” their father said softly, “this is exactly what I want. Maybe it is a gift to Harendell that William’s blood dies with him, for it will spare the people a long line of incipient useless brats on the throne.”

Alexandra sucked in a breath. “You don’t mean that.”

“Oh yes I do.” His father rounded on Will. “Would that I might live long enough to spare Harendell your careless, selfish, and impulsive nature. I forgave your behavior when you were young, but you are nearly thirty years of age and worse now than you were at seventeen. Concerned only for entertaining the fools you call friends, gambling with gold you didn’t earn, and drinking until you can barely stand. You call the Ithicanian woman a beast, but better that beast rule Harendell than the half-witted lapdog standing before me.”

James cringed, hating how cruel his father could be when deep in his cups. When all the rage that burned in his father’s heart poured out upon whoever stood before him.

Tears rolled down William’s face. “If you hate me so much, why don’t you just pay someone to shove me off the Sky Palace walls? Then you’ll have what you really want.”

“James,” Virginia whispered. “Stop this. Stop them.”

“In my darker moments,” Edward said, “I’ve considered it.”

“I wish you had. Better the long fall than the long torture that is being your heir.”

Alexandra pressed a hand to her mouth, and Virginia sobbed, “James, make them stop speaking like this.”

He was already moving. Stepping between them, he said, “These are words fueled by too much drink, and neither of you mean them.”

“Whereas you are sober and stalwart as always, brother. The perfect son. The perfect soldier.” William’s tone was harsh as he glared at his father. “Why don’t you just admit that you wish Jamie was your heir, not me, Father? That you’d rather put your bastard on the throne than your legitimate royal son.”

“Stop,” James snarled, then pressed one hand against his father’s chest and the other on his brother’s. Will’s chest shook with his sobs. “You will both regret this conversation.”

His father ignored him, eyes fixed on Will as he answered the accusation. “I didn’t realize I needed to say it. I thought it was as obvious to you as it is to everyone else. Your brother is twice the man you’ll ever be, and every hour for the last three decades, I’ve cursed God for the law that puts you first.”

“Stop!” James let go of Will to grab his father by the shoulders, pushing him backward.

He heard the footfalls of Will abandoning the room, Ginny calling his name as she pursued, but he did not let go of his father. “When I was eight, you made me swear that I’d always protect Will. That I’d stand between him and those who meant him harm. Whether you intended so or not, that includes protecting him from you. ”

His father’s eyes narrowed. “You don’t mean to tell me that you take his side in this? That you defend his behavior?”

“I don’t condone his behavior. Nor do I agree with his assessment of Ahnna’s character.” For which James fully intended to have a separate conversation with Will, once he was sober. “But I am always on my brother’s side. I always have his back.”

Except when you kiss the woman he’s meant to marry. James shoved the thought away.

Silence stretched, and then the rage vanished from his father’s eyes, replaced with a grief that was so much worse. “You’re just like her,” Edward muttered. “Loyal to a fault. Loyal until death.”

He only brought up James’s mother around Alexandra when he was beyond reason, but now that he had, James knew that his father would rage no more. Would only find a bottle and drink until sleep stole him away from the memory of the woman he said he loved more than life itself.

He shrugged James’s hands off his shoulders, pressing fingers to his temples. “I’ll speak to your brother. Apologize for my harsh words.”

“Now?”

“No. In the morning.”

James grimaced. “Now would be better, Father.”

“The morning. When my head is clear.” Hands still pressed to temples, his father left the room, and James knew that the apology would never come. That tonight, the only person his father would think of was Siobhan Crehan.

Alexandra knew the same.

Taking a breath, he turned to face the queen. His stepmother, though she’d been no mother to him.

“Always the hero, aren’t you, Jamie?” Her voice was soft yet cruel. “Leaping into the fray to protect your brother, never mind that all that he suffers is because of you. You and your whore of a mother.”

He’d long since lost count of the number of times she’d said these words to him over the years. Words made worse because there was much truth to them.

“William is innocent,” she hissed. “He has done nothing, and yet Edward hates him for no fault other than that the law names him heir and not you. The Cardiffian witch who birthed you has been dead longer than she lived, yet he remains under her spell, and all know that it is because of you. You have her fell magic in your blood and hold Edward’s heart with it as surely as your mother. You are no hero, James. You are the villain who will be William’s doom no matter how much you protest otherwise.”

Normally, he silently endured her hateful words, but the limits of his patience had been tested tonight, so James said, “What would you have me do, Alexandra? Tell me what to do to make this situation better, because whether you believe it or not, there is nothing I wouldn’t do for my brother.”

“Half brother,” she spat.

James shook his head. “No. We might only share a father, but there are ties that bind more tightly than blood. So tell me what will help. Tell me what I can do. What I can say.”

Alexandra was silent for a long time, her green eyes seething with hate, and then she said, “When Edward brought you to me, your tiny hand clutched in his, I could not understand why everyone thought you a curse. I thought you so young. So innocent. So desperately in need of protection.” Her lip curled into a snarl. “I should have cast you from the Sky Palace right then and there, for you have been the damnation of all that I hold dear.”

When he’d been a child, these words had scared him. Hurt him. Now, knowing that Alexandra would never risk killing him for fear of his father’s wrath, her words only made him feel numb. “Is that your answer, Your Grace? That I take the long fall? Is that the solution?”

Silence.

“No,” she finally said. “Not even in death will her curse be broken.”

Then she twisted on her heel and strode from the room.