“This ends now,” he announces.
“Come on, Boris. Tonight was my stag party. Can’t fault me for that, now, can you? You were young once. Granted, it was a really,reallylong time ago.” And being brought up knowing you would one day be king stole a man’s youth far too early. At least, that is the excuse I like to give when my brother is being a pain in the ass.
“I want you in rehabilitation first thing in the morning.”
“I don’t need rehabilitation.” What a waste of time. Who wants to sit around talking about what is wrong with our lives when we can drown our sorrows in much more pleasurable pursuits? “I can stop anytime I want.”
“Then why haven’t you?”
“Because I don’t want to.”Obviously.
The king’s curse sounds awfully close to my head. He loops his arms beneath mine, huffing and puffing as he drags me over to the bed. “I want your word that you will not cause any more trouble. Princess Leeri arrives in two days?—”
“Two?” She isn’t supposed to get here for at least another week.
“Two,” Boris confirms. “And if her father sees you like this, he will undoubtedly withdraw his support for the alliance. You’ve had your fun, now it’s time to grow up.”
What part of not being allowed out of the fucking castle without a royal babysitter isfun? What part of living with a gaping hole in my chest isfun? What part of being destined to wed a woman I care nothing for isfun?
“I refuse to let your selfishness ruin everything our father worked so hard to achieve.”
What our father “achieved” was having a wife who happened to give birth to five sons. Would our dear, deceased father have been as determined to take over the world if he’d been given a daughter or two instead?
I grumble what sounds like a promise, the claws of exhaustion already dragging me into unconsciousness.
My dreams begin as they always do: with a pair of golden eyes.
And they end the same as well.
With me leaving her behind.
Thirteen
ALLETTE
My heart battersmy breastbone as I try to catch my breath.
Senan Vale is alive.
All these years, I believed him dead, and he has beenhere, in Kumulus, living and breathing andalive. What was with all those tattoos? And the stardust glowing in his veins?
I close my eyes, forcing myself to remember the events of the night I’ve spent so long trying to forget.
Eason had said Senan was gone too.
He saw the humans take the prince. We both assumed they’d killed him, but what if he’d fought them off? What if he’d managed to escape? If that’s what happened, why didn’t he ever come back for me?
Did something happen in the years the portal had been closed? Had he fallen in love with his betrothed and forgotten all about what we had?
No. He wouldn’t have done that.
We are mated.
There must be some other explanation.
I try to get to him, but there are too many people calling his name, pushing and shoving me out of the way. Their shoutsdrown out my own, leaving me searching desperately for a way through the throng to my prince.
By the time the crowd disperses, there is no sign of Senan at all.