Total pages in book: 129
Estimated words: 123190 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 616(@200wpm)___ 493(@250wpm)___ 411(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 123190 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 616(@200wpm)___ 493(@250wpm)___ 411(@300wpm)
Remme calls for him again, and I wipe at my cheeks. “I can’t go out there yet.”
“Take all the time you need.” Kendrick backs out of the room, eyes lingering on me until he turns to the stairs.
“Hope you weren’t counting on seeing much of Hale tonight,” Skylar says as she leads me to the village center a quarter hour later. “Everyone will be wanting more of him than there is to go around.”
The celebration is crowded with fae and humans alike, and I weave through the crowd, watching people enjoy food from the long tables overflowing with fruit and bread and pastries and pour themselves glass after glass of a sparkling pink wine.
Luckily, I had a few minutes to pull myself together before Skylar showed up in my room wanting to know why I didn’t go down to the party with Kendrick.
I spot him chatting with Lons, the man who seemed so unhappy about us holding hands yesterday. They’re laughing, and another man seems to be waiting his turn to greet Kendrick. I can’t blame them for wanting him to themselves. I feel the same. But I don’t understand it. “Who is he to them?” I ask, rubbing my arms. The night is too cool for the way I cut this dress, and I’m already regretting that bit of vanity if Kendrick won’t even be around to enjoy it. I wish we could be closer to the fire and the comforting snap of the flames.
Skylar grabs a bottle of wine and fills two glasses. “Hale is magnetic. He has the charisma necessary to change the world, and that’s because he believes in what he’s fighting for. He believes in it with every bit of himself. But what people don’t understand—what you don’t understand—is that his fight, his cause, will always come first. It’s how he was made, and it’s commendable and admirable, and you can’t help but adore him for it.” She hands a glass to me. “That is until you need him to pick you over his cause and he can’t.”
“I would never ask him to pick me.”
Her smile is sad. The pitying curve of lips that comes from a person who thinks you’re walking the path they once walked. “That’s what we all think.”
“You still didn’t answer my question,” I say. “Who is he—other than another crusader? You all look to him, and everyone here is celebrating just seeing his face, so don’t pretend he’s just like you.”
“I shouldn’t be the one telling you any of this,” she says.
“But you’re the one I’m asking.”
She sighs. “He’s Kendrick the Chosen.” The look on her face is a mix of admiration and sadness. “He’s the one the oracle believed would overthrow the Elora Seven.”
I nod. “He told me that.”
She holds my gaze for a beat before adding, “And if he’s successful, he will be our new king.”
Why can’t our fates align? Why did the Mother put you in my path if I’m going to have to let you go?
His objections to being with me suddenly make sense in a totally different way.
Skylar tried to warn me, didn’t she? He’s not for me any more than he’s for you. The difference between us is that I’ve made my peace with that.
I swallow back hurt. “And who’s his queen? She’ll be chosen by the oracle, right?”
“She was already chosen.” Her eyes go steely as she scans the crowd. “And we lost her. Mordeus captured her only weeks before he was killed. Kendrick bartered for her release, but she disappeared. Some are beginning to lose hope that she’ll ever be found, but until the oracle names a new queen, we must believe she lives.”
That’s why Skylar’s always been so disapproving of anything between me and Kendrick. She wants him to keep his distance from me because she believes his queen is out there somewhere. Waiting for him.
“Does he . . .” I swallow hard. “Does he love her?”
Skylar’s lips press into a tight line. “He loves Elora. That’s all that matters.”
I watch the bubbles in my wineglass fizzle and pop, and bite back every objection that wants to launch itself off my tongue. What I have with Kendrick feels special—fated even, if I believed in such a thing—but Skylar’s been trying to tell me all along that everyone has this pull toward Kendrick.
Their future king.
“I’m sorry,” Skylar says. “For what it’s worth, I didn’t want you to get hurt.”
Am I really no different than anyone else? Just another person charmed by the goodness in his heart? Have I been fooling myself to think that my cursed stars might be changing? That maybe what I feel for him he feels for me in return? Did the way he showed up in the dungeons just when I needed him most mean nothing? And the fact that the ring doesn’t quite work the same on him? Does that mean nothing?