“I am too. What’s more, we fear what information he must have shared with Phiran. You see… there is more than one reason why I wished to hide my predicament from everyone. It would have been bad enough for the court to find out that their prince and future king turned into a monster every night.The cherry on top, as you say in your realm, would be finding out that I’m not… my father’s son. That the heir to the Seelie throne is a bastard, the love child of a deceiving queen.”
I gasped, unable to help my reaction. “I’m sorry. I…”
“No offense taken, but I see you realize the magnitude of my dilemma.”
I knew enough about the Fae to understand that purity of blood in their royal lines was paramount.
“The shadowdrifter curse was passed down to me by my biological father. It takes time to manifest, and it wasn’t until it did that I learned the truth about my parentage. My mother had hoped that the curse would spare me, but we weren’t that lucky. She confessed the truth when she spotted the symptoms she’d been watching for my entire life.”
I could only imagine how hard it was for Kalyll to hear the truth.
He continued. “I have no hunger for the throne, Daniella. I would gladly step down for my brother if only he weren’t utterly unsuited for the job. You see, Cardian is a frivolous man. Not only that, he is cruel and thinks of nothing but himself. I fear what would happen to my people if he were ever in charge. He would terribly love to be king, and if this knowledge reaches his ears, I don’t even want to imagine what he would do. Not now when we teeter at the brink of war against a man so similar to him. Imagine the destruction Cardian and King Kellam Mythorne would cause, blinded by their selfish pursuits.”
“I see,” I said, for the first time fully understanding why he could justify sacrificing one person’s freedom. My small losses were nothing compared to what he feared for his realm.
One life, your life, is nothing compared to that, he’d said to me a month ago.I’d believed him to be a bad person and thought someone virtuous could never do something bad for a good reason, but I’d been wrong.
He went on. “I know none of these things justify taking you from your home, but I hope you can understand me better now.”
“I do.”
He smiled. “You’re the bravest of us all, Daniella.”
“Me?”
“You give so much of yourself, without regard for your own life. You give openly with kindness in your heart and life at your fingertips. You are… the most amazing person I’ve ever met.”
A knot formed in my throat. He couldn’t be serious. Was he? I wanted to reach out and touch him, but something in his expression stopped me.
“There is one more thing I must say to you,” he added.
He was already crestfallen, but whatever he was about to say seemed to weigh more heavily on him than everything he’d already shared.
“I wish at all costs to prevent a war. Mythorne is a despicable man, and I would like nothing more than to rid our land of his blight, but that would only cause the death of innocent people. So in order to smooth things over and create an alliance, I’ve entered into a contract with the Fall Court.” He paused, his gaze breaking from mine.
After a long moment, he told me the rest. “I am engaged to marry Kryn’s sister, Princess Mylendra Goren.”
My heart had no business taking a tumble. My feelings had no reason to be hurt. There was no slight. Kalyll owed me nothing, was nothing to me. And yet, his words felt like an arrow straight through the chest and caused a wound that no amount of healing power or dark energy could mend.
That was when I realized that my feelings for Kalyll had, at some point, changed.
You idiot, heart! What have you done?!
I don’t know how I held myself together, but despite the deep ache in my chest, I took the news without giving my distress away.
“That’s why they were all mad at me,” I said, choosing to focus on the least distressing aspect stemming from this news. “They thought I would jeopardize this… contract.”
Kalyll was engaged to a Fae princess who would help him prevent a horrible war. Of course, the others had a right to be upset with me. Of course, a common human sharing a tryst with their prince would be cause for anger in a situation like this.
“Daniella.” Kalyll reached for my hand, but I pulled away.
I would not be able to bear his touch without falling apart.
“I barely know her,” he said. “And what I do know of her suggests we have nothing in common. I didn’t wish to marry her before and now—”
“Please… don’t say anything else.” I couldn’t take it. I just couldn’t. I didn’t want to cry in front of him. There were no words that could make this situation better, that could ease the viselike pain around my heart.
He ran a hand over his face, letting out a frustrated sigh. He was biting his lower lip, trying to respect my wishes, even though he clearly wanted to say more.