For once, I’m not trying to cause trouble. I’m trying to help. Why can’t he see that?
I stalk out of the room, straight to the library, but my brother and fiancée are nowhere to be found. After ten minutes of searching, I stumble upon them laughing on a settee in the solar, a stack of books on Rhainn’s lap. When they see me, they both clamber to their feet as if they’d been caught doing something more scandalous.
No sense letting Rhainn dream of a different fate.
Dreams only lead to heartache.
I cross the carpet and slip my hand to the small of Leeri’s back. Rhainn’s face crushes up before he hides his pain beneath a wide smile. “I’ve imposed long enough,” he murmurs, clutching his books to his chest as he backs toward the balcony.
Leeri smiles up at me, her clear, blue eyes dancing with something akin to happiness.
Maybe if I close my eyes and pretend she is someone else, I can survive. It worked for the other women I’ve been with, didn’t it? I brush the flyaways from her face before nudging her chin higher with my finger, my gaze dropping to the bow of her mouth.
Allette is gone.
Just close your eyes.
“You’re going to kiss me, aren’t you?” Leeri whispers, a tremble in her voice.
“If that is all right?”
She bobs her head. “I would like it very much.”
Swallowing past the sudden lump in my throat, I lean down and press my mouth to hers. Leeri’s hands slip to my collar, clinging there. When I run the tip of my tongue along the seam of her lips, her body stiffens, but she doesn’t open her mouth.
I draw back, taking in the delicate blush staining her suntanned cheeks. “Have you ever been kissed before?”
Her lashes flutter open, and her brow furrows. “We’ve been betrothed since I turned five. Who else would I have kissed?”
Part of me feels guilty for throwing myself away these past few years. Not for what transpired between Allette and me. I will never feel guilty for loving her. But the others…
I should’ve been stronger. Shown more restraint instead of giving in time and again. But getting lost is what I do best.
When I kiss Leeri again, her mouth parts on a sigh, allowing my tongue to meet hers in one careful, tentative sweep. She makes a noise low in her throat that I don’t mind so much.
My body doesn’t seem to mind either.
Maybe Rhainn is right.
Maybe this isn’t the worst fate imaginable.
Twenty-Nine
ALLETTE
The momentI step into the solar, the smooth, honeyed timbre of Senan’s voice caresses my soul. Long, gauzy white curtains flutter on either side of an open window, and sunlight leaks through the leaden panes, highlighting the couple sharing an intimate embrace.
I watch, transfixed, as Senan stares into his princess’s eyes, as if he couldn’t tear himself away if he tried. She murmurs to him, the words too low for me to hear.
His response is a whisper.
And then he kisses her.
The moment their lips touch, my heart implodes. I want to scream,“He is mine!”
Even the pain of losing my wings pales in comparison to watching Senan’s beautiful hands gather someone else’s hair. Seeing his lips claim hers before tugging into the same smile that used to belong to me.
The feather duster in my hand clatters to the ground. I stretch my fingers across my ribs, trying to force air into my lungs.