Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 67421 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 337(@200wpm)___ 270(@250wpm)___ 225(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 67421 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 337(@200wpm)___ 270(@250wpm)___ 225(@300wpm)
As foolish as that tradition was. For it was only established to assuage the fears of potential king consorts who wanted to be certain their issue would inherit Aleron’s throne. In Elina’s mind, better to have a consort dedicated to the queen’s pleasure and the mutual devotion of their hearts. For what better way to make certain she would not take a lover?
Elina had said as much once to Lady Faraine, who’d agreed. Though when the time came, Elina’s preferences in a consort had not mattered at all. “I did not know then, but my marriage had become her only goal. When we heard that Kael the Conqueror was searching for a bride, we spent a full year traveling to his four kingdoms. For he matched the description of the warrior in the prophecy.”
Warrick stiffened. He snarled something that she understood not at all—except in the midst of it, he repeated the name she’d spoken.
“You know Kael the Conqueror?”
She could not interpret his brief, steely answer but liked very well the sneering curl of his upper lip.
“Even before the prophecy, I had told Lady Faraine that someone such as Kael was the sort of warrior that I needed. Not someone tied to their own kingdoms—for when he killed Geofry the Child-Eater, he was not yet king—or who would refuse to embroil themselves in the conflict of another realm. So it seemed a destined match. But when we arrived, he was already wed.”
Warrick scoffed and spat a few pithy words that held a note of challenge. As if he’d declared that if Kael and Elina had married, Warrick would have taken her from him.
The thought made her smile. “I was disappointed, but only on behalf of Aleron and my people. I had no feelings for him, and that held true during the winter we spent in Grimhold, his southern kingdom. No feelings for him, but for his wife…? Oh, I admired her so. And it was in Grimhold that I learned of true magic from Queen Anja. Of kindness and love as the most powerful of all magics. Sometimes I feel that my heart healed there. I was not so melancholy, at least—but we could not stay in her court. So we continued onward, but I had new hope. Because if the prophecy led me to Kael, perhaps it would lead me to someone else who could help me. I was so eager to continue onward.
“But Lady Faraine, she was…” What? Elina still didn’t know. “I like to believe she was tired. That she was longing for home. That she wished to be settled instead of always searching. Not that she merely wished to be rid of me. Because in Winhelm, she secretly arranged a betrothal between me and the crown prince of that kingdom. I had refused to marry him, of course, because my intention was still to return to Aleron. But one night, after a feast when it seemed the toasts were never ending and I was dizzy from wine, I hardly knew what was happening before she had me standing up with the prince and a red ribbon around our hands. But I refused to say the vows and…and…”
Her voice broke. But Warrick was there, murmuring her name, kissing her lips.
Swallowing hard, Elina forced out the end. “We left her in Winhelm.”
Eyes narrowing, he pulled back slightly to search her face. As if looking for what was still unsaid.
And there was much unsaid. Hoarsely she confessed, “Never have I told anyone what she— She is a liar. I could not bear if what she said was true. I could not bear it.”
Holding her face between his hands, Warrick gently kissed her again.
She drew a shuddering breath against his lips. Her whisper was raw and thick. “She told me that before Serjeant Iarthil was sent to bring me to my mother’s deathbed, he’d vowed to keep me safe. Which is what he vowed when I was there. But…Lady Faraine said the first vow that my mother made him swear was never to bring me back to Aleron. So that I would always be safe from my uncle. Because my mother feared I was not strong enough to defeat him.” Her breath hitched. “Lady Faraine said that my own mother thought me too weak to hold Aleron’s throne, so I might as well sit on Winhelm’s next to an equally weak prince.” She clutched Warrick closer, and closing her eyes did nothing to stop her streaming tears. “If true, my own mother had no faith in me. And Serjeant Iarthil has been leading me from place to place while only pretending we will return home. Keeping me safe, true. But not truly believing me queen of anything, with no true respect or care for me. Only duty, to a queen long dead. This, a man who I once wished was my own father—a better man than my father but no less false. But that is not all of it. That is not all.”