My first evening as queen is spent watching the sun sink toward the garden below my balcony.
I blow gently on my steaming cup of tea, legs curled snugly beneath me in the plush chair. I’ve hardly been past those stunning glass doors since gawking at my chamber for the first time. Now, with nothing to do but sit within my thoughts, I decided it best to weather the storm inside my mind with a calming view.
Rows of color fan out beneath me, framing each cobblestone path and stretching toward that fading sun. Birds chirp softly at the approaching dusk as shadows begin their slow crawl across the earth. I take a sip of tea and shut my eyes as the warmth of it spills into my stomach. This has the potential to be the most peaceful moment I’ve had since being sent to the Purging Trials. Until the flash of my wedding ring reminds me of the wreckage that is my life.
I’m still reeling, hours later, from every revelation ripping my past apart. Royal blood flows through my veins, and yet it has coated Imperials’ whips and drenched the late king’s sword. Edric Azer’s blatant hatred for me was a fire that sparked the day I was born an Ordinary. And I have been fighting to survive since.
I stare down into my rippling teacup. A forgotten princess stares back, abandoned for power and hated for surviving despite it.
I blow out a breath while my mind struggles to connect all the pieces of my fragmented life.
Iris Moyra lived within this very castle, smothering her love for a man she could not have. They hid their affections like a thorny wall of roses, both beautiful but dangerous. Today, I watched the man my mother loved in secret bleed out before me. I hadn’t felt grief at his death. No, I felt a shiver of ghostly similarities between my mother and father’s doomed love. Their notes, their stolen love—it is Kai’s and my life mirrored. And if the Enforcer will someday meet the fate Calum has—
I cut the thought off before it has time to fester.
Perhaps Iris loved them both—the king and his Mind Reader. Perhaps in very different ways.
I think of Kitt and the blood we share. I think desperately of a way to undo this binding of our souls, one that does not rip the growth we have made for this kingdom out at the root. My chest tightens, the teacup rattling in my hand atop its saucer.
How am I going to find a way out of this?
A shifting shadow below catches my eye. I set my cup aside and squint into the growing darkness. The figure walks smoothly to a stop beneath my balcony and calls, “Guess who, Little Psychic?”
My heart stutters, yet I somehow manage to keep my voice steady. “Someone who has already forgotten my new title?”
Kai’s dry chuckle drifts into the breeze as I stand to lean over the railing. “Majesty, I have many titles for you. Not all are appropriate to shout.”
I roll my eyes. I can’t help but leap at the distraction he offers from my spiraling thoughts. “What do you want, cocky bastard?”
“You forgot the ‘my’ in front of that endearing nickname.”
“You shouldn’t be here,” I challenge. “As my Enforcer.”
His tone echoes my own. “Then command me to go.”
“Don’t tempt me.”
“That would only be fair.”
I stare down at his shadowed form. “You’re deflecting.”
“Maybe I’m stalling.”
My eyes narrow. “And why is that?”
“Call it a desperate attempt to steal more time with you.”
I hide my smile with a duck of my head. “Do you intend to stand beneath my balcony all night, then?”
“No.” His gray gaze has faded away in the darkness, but I can feel it on me all the same. “We are going to visit your mother’s chamber.”
