SENAN
Aeron isn’tin his room or the dining room. He isn’t anywhere. When I ask Bell, he says my brother was with the king the last time he saw him. Which doesn’t bode well for me. Boris could have the man tied up for hours, and I need to get back to Allette. I just don’t want to go back empty-handed or with more questions than answers.
So, I sit and wait. And wait. And wait some more.
Around midnight, Aeron finally emerges from the confines of our brother’s office with sunken eyes. There is liquor on his breath and cigar smoke wafting from his unbuttoned shirt. When he sees me, he startles but recovers almost immediately, grabbing my arm and dragging me out on the balcony.
“You shouldn’t be here.”
“Leave off.” I shake free of his grip. “I am not a bold child who needs to be escorted to his room.”
“Are you sure about that?”
If I didn’t need his help, I’d punch him in his smug face. I nod back toward the king’s study. “Why were you in there for so long?”
“Boris was asking about life in Stratiss.”
“For two hours?” I can’t imagine life being that interesting.
His lips press into a thin line. “Yes, well, Mills is pregnant.”
“Oh, shit. You didn’t waste any time there.” No wonder Boris is pissy. He has been married for almost a decade and still hasn’t given Kumulus an heir of his own line. “Congratulations, brother.” It wounds me that he didn’t share the news straightaway, but then again, I haven’t really given him the chance to speak of his life since I’ve been so caught up in mine.
Although Aeron thanks me, he looks miserable at the prospect of being a father. “Is this not good news?” I ask.
“I’ve done my duty for Kumulus and Stratiss. That is what matters.”
We are nothing more than studs being farmed out to neighboring kingdoms for our “pure” Scathian blood. It’s a load of bollocks, if you ask me.
“Have you found any happiness in Stratiss?”
His baleful glare is all the answer I need.
“I bet you wish you had fought harder.”
“Not this again,” he mutters, rubbing his temples.
“Yes, ‘this again.’ I refuse to let my life end up like yours.”
“You speak of what you do not know.”
“I know that if I marry that woman, I will be as miserable and dead inside as you.” We were inseparable growing up, joined at the hip. Training, fighting, drinking. Whatever it was, we did it together. At least until I met Allette.
Aeron is the one who helped me survive that first year. Told me to keep my faith. The one who dragged me home following night after night of drinking, ensuring I always made it back to the castle alive. I wanted to fight everyone—fight the world.
He was the one who found me in that privy the night I learned of Allette’s fate. The one who carried me home, glowing like a fucking star. Who nursed me through the worst hangover, and the fevers, and the nightmares. He slept in my room every night that first month. But then Boris started giving him moreresponsibilities. Sent him to Stratiss to court his betrothed, driving this wedge between us. I clung to our vow to refuse our marriages, and yet he stood in front of Boris and nodded—fuckingnodded—when our brother told him that he was to wed Mills Abernathy six weeks later.
I can still remember the abject horror of watching him bend to Boris’s demands.
I will not make the same mistake.
The king dragged me away from my mate once before, and I swear upon the very stars that have cursed me that he will not separate us ever again.
“I’ve convinced the princess to call off the wedding.”
Something dark flickers across Aeron’s expression. He grabs me by the shoulders and shakes me. “For the love of all that is holy, Senan, do not push the king. You cannot imagine the lengths he is willing to go to in order to secure these alliances. You will regret it dearly if you do.”
If I didn’t know better, I’d say my brother sounded scared. Which makes no sense. He is the most fearless of us all. “What happened, Aeron?”