A Kingdom of Blood and Betrayal (Stars and Shadows #2)(3)

“I didn’t realize you were giving me a choice.”

“We all have choices, princess, but there aren’t always two clear paths to choose from. Do you think I knew I was going to end up hurting you? Do you think I had any fucking clue that I was going to find my mate in the girl who is meant to change our world?”

I stared up at him, but I didn’t say a word.

“You have a choice to make too. You can go back to him if that’s what you choose. You can lie down and become whatever he wishes to make you.” His fists clenched at his sides. “Or you can stay here with me. You can stay here with your mate.”

“Those are my two choices?” I wrapped my arms around my chest and stared at the wall of the tent. “Stay with your evil brother or stay with the man who made me believe—”

“Made you believe what?” He ran his hand over his jaw as he stared down at me. “I may be the son of the Blood queen, but that doesn’t make me any less of the man you wanted. I have an entire kingdom to think about. There are far too many people counting on me for me to forget everything because I found my mate. But it doesn’t make what has happened between us any less real.”

“Prince Evren,” a gruff voice called his name from the front of the tent, and we both tensed. I had forgotten about everyone but him. I hadn’t even thought of the others hearing.

I could hear them now, moving around the camp, and I wondered what they thought of me.

“Get some rest. I will be back shortly to check on you.”

“Don’t.” I shook my head as I lay down and turned my back to him. Please don’t.

He left the tent without another word, and I clamped my eyes shut and prayed for sleep to claim me.





CHAPTER 2





I shot up and reached for my dagger as my heart lodged in my throat. Except it wasn’t there. Shit.

I was in a camp full of vampyres, full of my enemies, and I had no way to protect myself. I searched through the dark tent as the sound of groaning filled the small space. I couldn’t tell if it was coming from inside the tent or outside, but I knew it was Evren. I knew it without a doubt, and I jumped to my feet as his ragged breathing racketed up the beating of my heart.

I crept toward the opening of the tent and tried to pull my power forward. For the first time since I thought Queen Veda’s men were going to hurt Evren, I could feel it coursing through me, snaking through my veins like it was awaiting my word.

My hand wrapped around the thick material of the tent flap, and I was just about to open it, when I heard his groan from behind me. I spun around and blinked, begging my eyes to adjust to the dark, and then I saw him.

Evren was lying on his bedroll on the opposite side of the tent from where I had been, and he was alone. I stepped closer as I breathed a sigh of relief that no one was with him, that no one was hurting him. I took a step toward him, and another groan fell from his lips. His fists were clenched into his bedroll as his neck bowed from the ground, and he was in pain.

“Evren,” I whispered his name, but it was no use. He couldn’t hear me. He couldn’t hear anything through his agony. I rushed toward him and fell to my knees at his side, but I was fearful to touch him. Fearful to rouse him when he looked so far gone from this world. “Evren, please.”

“No.” The word was ground out through his teeth, and a deep ache shot through my chest as I watched him. I had never seen him like this, never considered what he had been through.

“Evren.” I reached forward and shook his arm, but he jerked it out of my touch. His face grimaced as if my touch had burned him.

My magic swirled through me, and even though I had no idea what I was doing, I reached inside of me and let it fall from my fingers in a desperate plea. Help him, I silently begged my magic as the inky black smoke swarmed the tent.

It seemed to obey, to calm under my command, and the swirls of darkness found Evren and Evren alone. It brushed against his skin, not leaving a single inch untouched, and I watched as the deep crease between his brows slowly smoothed away. His hands relaxed and his breathing evened, and just when I thought that I had fully calmed him, my name fell from his lips. He shot up in his bedroll, and his hand found his dagger before I had a single moment to react. But my magic wrapped around his wrist before he could lift it in my direction.

“Princess?” He said my name with confusion coating the word, and I tried to pull my magic back into me.

But it wouldn’t come.

“I’m sorry.” I looked up to meet his dark eyes before quickly looking away. “You were having a nightmare.”

“Shit,” he cursed under his breath before he searched my gaze with panic flooding his. “I didn’t mean to wake you.”

“Are you okay?” I shouldn’t have cared. I shouldn’t have been forcing my hands to stay still so they wouldn’t reach out and trace every inch of his skin until I was certain he wasn’t hurt.

He didn’t deserve those things from me.

“Yes.” He nodded his head, but he didn’t seem sure. He started to lift his hand, but my magic held it in place. Not as a restraint but as if it was desperate to not let him go. “Your magic.” He moved his fingers through the smoke, and I felt the motion as if he was stroking my spine.

“I can’t control it,” I whispered the words I hated with a voice that showed how much he affected me. I didn’t want to be weak, and I desperately didn’t want to show my weakness to him.