A Kingdom of Blood and Betrayal (Stars and Shadows #2)(10)

CHAPTER 4





My vision blurred, and I couldn’t see Thalia anymore.

I couldn’t see or think about anything other than the words that had just passed his lips. He was going back. He brought me here, away from his brother, and now he was going back.

My hands shook as Jorah walked up and wrapped Thalia in his arms. He looked as genuinely happy to see her as Evren did, but it didn’t matter.

He was leaving.

“I’m going to take Adara to her room,” Evren spoke to them, but he was still looking at me.

And I couldn’t hide a single bit of my distress.

He reached forward, gripping my elbow in his hand, and he said something under his breath, but I couldn’t make it out. My heartbeat was rushing in my ears, hammering away every bit of composure I had managed to hold on to.

He was leaving.

Evren led me up the steps to the front of the palace, and I followed behind him wordlessly as two guards opened the doors for us and let us inside. Both bowed their heads in respect to my mate, and I wondered if they knew.

Did they all know they were going to be sending their prince back into the hands of their enemies?

Did they care for him at all or did they only care about what he could do for them? He was their prince but also their spy and their traitor.

I couldn’t decide if he was as much a pawn in their game as I was or if that was just what he’d have me believe. Was he the master who got off on the thought that he could fool me into believing any part of him belonged to me. My chest ached as we walked into the palace. The windows were made of mosaic glass that caused the sunlight to bounce about the room, and along the furniture made of warm, aging wood. The palace was grand, but it still somehow felt like a home. We stepped into a large great room, and the smell of smoky hearths, fresh flowers, and aged books hit me. Memories of the small home I shared with my mother flooded me.

“I’ll give you a tour once you’re settled.” Evren ran his fingers through his hair, and I watched the way the sun shined in through the windows and brought out the blaring darkness of it.

I didn’t answer him because I didn’t know what to say. The same thought was choking me, and I feared nothing else would escape my lips.

He was leaving.

We walked through a long hallway, the same aged stone greeting me inside the palace, but there was so much sunlight. When I had thought of the Sidra Palace, I had imagined an eerie castle that housed blood-thirsty vampyres. It was the image my mother and those in my village had painted in my mind. It was hard to wade through all the lies. They slipped through my fingers as easily as the truth, and I couldn’t recognize one from the other.

“This is your room.” Evren stopped in front of a large wooden door with an ornate golden handle, and his hesitation hammered in my chest like the ghost of what we could have been. But he didn’t say another word. He simply reached forward and opened it, and I followed him inside.

The door clicked closed behind me, and I tried to hold in the gasping breath that was desperate to beg him not to leave.

“My room is directly across the hall.” He crossed his arms as he moved toward the bed. It was covered in layers and layers of white fabrics and fresh flowers set on the table at its side, and it wasn’t lost on me that he was the one to give me this even though he had taken me in the name of his kingdom.

It was grander than anything I had ever had. The bed called to me, and my bone-deep tiredness hit me as I stared at it.

“But you won’t be there.”

It wasn’t a question. It was the truth, and it was clawing at my chest as I glanced back to the door.

“I will be for a few days, but then no, I won’t.” He looked away as he said it so nonchalantly. He said it as if him leaving me didn’t feal like the biggest betrayal of all.

“Why?” I shook my head and balled my hands into fists as I looked up at him.

“Why am I leaving?”

“Why would you bring me here if you were just going to leave? Why would you bring me here at all?”

“Would you rather I had left you?” He spat the words at me, and this was what I needed. His anger I could deal with because it was easier to swallow. I was angry and scared, and it was all crashing against my chest, begging for release.

“I would rather you not lie!” I stepped toward him, and my magic snaked under my skin, uncontrollable and feral. “For the first time since you’ve met me, just tell me the truth.”

“The truth, princess, is that I have no choice but to return to the Fae Court. I cannot allow my father or the queen to think that I am the one that took you. We cannot afford for them to think anything other than the fact that we were attacked. They will know that the Blood Court took you, but I need to influence their next plan of attack.”

I shook my head, but he simply continued.

“If they find out that I am the one that took you, the fae queen will not stop until I am dead and you are laid bare before them. I have to find out what they know, what they suspect.”

“And what if they know the truth?” My stomach turned and chills broke out against my skin.

“Then I will be the one to deal with those consequences, and you will be safe under the protection of my kingdom.”

“No.” Fear clawed at me, and I balled my hands into fists as black smoke swirled around them in a mist of my terror. “I will not allow you to go back there. You are not going to get killed over me.”