Ronan

Ronan

Moonlight streamed through my bedroom window, turning my golden bed frame pale silver.

My insides squirmed like my intestines were trading places with my stomach. The chair beneath my ass was grown for my body by the most skilled Crafters in the realm, but it wasn’t comfortable tonight.

I had hoped to sleep through the night, but clearly, that wouldn’t happen. I ran a hand through my black hair, then rose and stalked out of my bedroom door, not bothering to pull on a T-shirt, just heading downstairs bare-chested wearing only my black sweatpants.

It didn’t matter. Nobody would see me tonight, at least nobody who mattered.

I went downstairs in the dark, not bothering to summon a globe of light. My parents had wanted me to stay on in their estate, of course, but I couldn’t bear to be that far from the center of town, so I’d insisted on moving out. They, in turn, had insisted on purchasing me a stately townhouse fitting for an heir of Mentium and all the trappings that came with it. Marble dinner plates, curtains made of the finest fae threads, and all the staff a prince could need.

A serving fae appeared at the foot of the stairs, but I waved him away and strode past, and he melted into the shadows.

Ordinarily, I didn’t mind the fawning and ass-kissing, but I was in no mood tonight.

I pushed out the grand glass doors into the backyard and plunged into the narrowest pathway leading through the ferns.

Tonight marked one year since Sebarah’s parents died. This should be the day my best friend ended his mourning, but he couldn’t do that because he was dead too.

My intestines crawled up to my throat and formed a lump I couldn’t swallow away, so instead, I walked faster, treading lightly over the intertwining roots.

At the heart of the garden, deep and hidden, where even the family Growers never came, was my moonway. A secret path connected my garden to my favorite place in Verda—in Arathay. The Lakehouse.

Five moonways led to the Lakehouse, the other four connecting each of my best friends’ homes to our shared hideaway. The one place the five heirs of the Realm of Verda could escape the public’s prying eyes and be ourselves.

Under the full moon, the pathway glittered, and I stepped onto it as easily as breathing.

I strode along the moonway, and the world beside me blurred, but I still couldn’t swallow my sadness. Tonight should have been Sebarah’s night, but he was cold and dead and never coming back. Breaking into a jog to pound away my gloom, the world streaked into light and color around me as my feet ate dozens of yards with every step.

I spilled out of the path behind the Lakehouse into a grove of orange trees that always reminded me of Sebarah. He’d grown them for me a few years ago after I complained there was no juice for breakfast. He’d done it to show me what an arrogant prick I was, of course, but it was still thoughtful, and just looking at them hardened the lump in my throat.

Fuck that. Fuck him being dead and gone, and fuck me never being able to see him again.

I wiped away a tear and entered the Lakehouse through the back door, then walked along the hallway, which opened into a room with floor-to-ceiling glass overlooking our private lake.

My favorite black leather armchair called to me, but I chose instead to step outside onto the deck that overhung the water and pace back and forth.

The only thing that made me feel better about Seb was remembering the promise I’d made him. To never let anybody sit on the Floran throne except him. It was a vow we took long ago that we would fight for each other’s places in this world. Never let anybody, especially his sister, return to the realm and claim his spot.

Never.

I would make that promise come true no matter what it took, even if it ripped my soul from my body.

It was the only link I had to Sebarah, the only thing that mattered.

A light shape moved through the water and lunged out of the lake, landing on the deck with an enormous splash. My heart lifted to see the silver fur of a giant wolf. He transformed into his fae form and shook out his long silvery hair, flicking me with water. Leif.

“Get a towel, wolf boy,” I snapped, wiping droplets off my chest.

Leif’s moonway emerged on the far side of the lake, so he usually transformed into his wolf form and either swam or ran to the Lakehouse.

Which had the major drawback that he always arrived utterly naked.

“And cover your junk while you’re at it. I don’t want that thing in my face.”

The wolf laughed as though that was the best joke he’d ever heard and kept standing there with his dick out. He looked around. “Are the others here?”

I shook my head. If Dion was here, the place would smell of tasty food, and if Gabrelle was here, she’d make sure everybody knew. “It’s just us. I was rather enjoying the silence.”

That was a fucking lie. I’d been wallowing in self-pity and missing the hell out of Seb, but Leif didn’t need to know that.

Leif ran his hands down his chest. “Since we’re alone, do you fancy a quick screw? I haven’t come in hours.” Stupidly, I glanced down and saw his big swinging dick twitch in anticipation.

“No,” I snarled, shining my piss-offiest glare his way. “How many times do I have to tell your stupid hairy ass it’s a permanent no.”

He lifted one shoulder and kept grinning. “Oh well, never mind, it was worth a try.”

“No, it really wasn’t. It was a waste of your breath and a waste of my time. It’s never going to happen. Besides, you made the same pact I did. No screwing amongst the heirs, it makes things too complicated.”

Arathay had six fae realms, and Verda was the only one ruled by committee. Each other realm had a single monarch, but Verda had five thrones, one from each of the five ruling Houses.

So as soon as the majority of our parents kicked the bucket, we would all be propelled onto thrones. In a few hundred years, all of us would be rulers, and if we had complicated sexual backgrounds, that would just make life hell.

Leif shook himself again, and water sprayed across the deck, but I was out of range. “That didn’t stop you and Gabrelle from getting hot and heavy.”

“That was before we made the pact.”

Gabrelle exuded sex, she was a walking bang bunny, and I had fallen prey to her a few years back. Fortunately, she was also an ice queen without emotion, which made it easier to keep it just friends.

She and I screwing was the reason we forged the deal in the first place. Leif didn’t care; he was all about sex all the time, but when Dion found out, he lost his shit and made us swear to stop.

The truth was, Gabrelle and I still had a friends-with-benefits agreement that we occasionally fell back on when we were drunk, but Leif didn’t need to know that. He would blab to Dion, who would lose his shit all over again.

“Take a hint, buddy,” I said over my shoulder as I walked indoors, then slumped into my armchair. “I’m not interested.”

Leif’s silver eyes bored into mine for a few moments. “Not yet, anyway,” he grinned wolfishly. “But I’m patient.”

I growled at him, but in truth, I was happy for this lighthearted banter, glad to be rescued from my thoughts about Sebarah.

Leif pulled on a pair of gray sweatpants from the dozens he kept in a kitchen drawer—which irritated Dion no end. He also produced a tennis ball from somewhere and played with it, tossing it into the air and catching it. “I couldn’t sleep,” he began, then sprawled along the massive silver sofa he always claimed and tossed the ball from a reclined position. “Because of Seb. Did you know today is his six-month dead-iversary?”

Irritation skittered through me. Seb died six months ago; since then, I’d never had a good mood that stuck. They always dissolved like sugar in hot wine, leaving me raw and burned.

“Of course I know that,” I snapped. Sebarah was my best friend, we were closer than any of the others, and I was smarter than Leif by a mile, so obviously I knew the significance of today’s date.

Leif barreled on. The only thing that got that wolf down was when you withdrew physical affection—he could withstand verbal abuse all day and all night. “Talk me through your plan again. I still don’t see why we have to get rid of House Flora. They’ve ruled with us for thousands of years, they probably help keep Gaia pleased and keep things in balance. They’re the House of trees and shit, you know.”

My scalp itched, and heat radiated through me. My knuckles on my black armchair turned pale under my clenched fists. “Of course I know that. But every valid descendant of House Flora is dead and gone.”

“Well, they’re not all dead, are they? There’s that fae chick from the mortal realm.”

Anger edged my voice in steel. “That fae female from Hebes has grown up among mortals. She can’t rule in her parents’ place. We cannot allow her to walk into a position she hasn’t earned and knows nothing about. She will never replace Seb. Never.”

Leif held up his hands. “Sure, if it means so much to you, buddy.”

“Not just me. I promised Sebarah. And we’ve been over this a million times. The others agree with me.”

“I know, I know.” He mimed zipping his mouth shut.

Good. Leif was a top friend. Leif, Gabrelle, and Dion, all of them were the best buddies imaginable.

But they would never be Seb. They could never fill the aching hole in my heart torn open with his death.