Chapter 19
NINETEEN
Zane
The elders sit on the dais, dressed in their respective court's ceremonial attire. They don't speak, but their eyes say they're tired of waiting. We've been here for twenty minutes past the set meeting time, and everyone has arrived… except the queen-to-be.
I begin to pace, wondering if something happened to keep Cassia from showing up on time. Maybe it's something with her father or grandmother. The impulse to teleport to their cottage to check on them courses through me, but the elders frown upon things like that during a formal ceremony, even if it hasn't begun yet. Though, I haven't figured out what the elders don't frown upon outside of blind obedience to their will and their antiquated rules.
Cassia's testing that right now with her absence.
I smile. She tests everyone with that passionate temper of hers. Watching her fume at Prince Sulien put me further under her spell. She's electric. Some part of me didn't care if she turned that temper onto me, just as long as she was looking at me .
She's made me insane. A man of feelings instead of logic. The Winter Fae will be horrified by the change.
I've never met a woman in my court like her. Hell, I doubt there's anyone like her in the four courts, especially considering her view on marrying us. A view that's driving me crazy. I just can't wrap my mind around her not wanting to be our queen. Are we really that bad? Or is it something else? I thought every girl dreamed of being queen, yet she's fighting it tooth and nail.
There's never a question of how she feels because she says it and she shows it, and I don't think she has to try. It's natural for her to express herself. My feelings live inside of me. Hers are loud and out for the world to see.
Being married to her will be an adventure. She'll be the fire to my cold.
A smile perks up on my face when I think about the way she responded to me when I stepped into her space in Prince Sulien's room. She wants me. I saw how her breathing changed and the way she closed her eyes when I whispered in her ear. She's fighting her attraction to me, which makes no sense because she'll be my wife, our wife, within days.
I can't wait to touch her, to bed her on our wedding night. Even though she made a joke about my manhood, I'll be the one laughing when I show her just how wrong she was, and just how much I can do with my very adequate cock.
My wife will be pleased in all ways. As pleased as I am to call her my own.
I feel a gaze cling to me, breaking me from my thoughts. Prince Cobar's gaze holds my own from across the room, a question in the look, before he glances away. I draw my focus back to the present, but doing so brings forth the uneasy feeling in my chest. Prince Cobar, Prince Forrest, and Prince Sulien stand on different sides of the room. I don't know what they're thinking, but they mill around, fidgeting with their clothing and watching the door.
Cassia's not royalty, yet, so she doesn't understand the way of the elders, but she's pushing the limits with her tardiness.
"Where is your mate?" the Summer Elder asks. He stands and looks down on us, wanting to be intimidating, but he's not. He's just an old man with power because we've allowed it.
But Sulien answers him with respect. "The servants are fetching her now." He glances at all of us and moves to the center of the sanctuary. We follow him and stand in a circle facing each other. Waiting.
Hopefully not much longer, because something about all of this feels wrong. This is more than a person running late. This is something… Prince Sulien may know more about.
"What's going on?" I whisper to Prince Sulien. He's closest to her, being the prince of the court she lives in. They have a connection outside of this betrothal, but neither of them let us in on their history. It's obvious, and infuriating. He's going to have the upper hand with her in our marriage, and the rest of us will have to work harder to charm her.
I wonder if he's fucked her before. My jaw twitches.
"I don't know. I made sure the servants knew what time to bring her here." He puts his hands in his pockets and squints toward the massive double doors at the entrance. They don't move. No one's entered the sanctuary since we walked in.
"Do you think something's happened to her family?" Prince Cobar asks.
It's a good question and one of the only possibilities that make sense. This event is one of the most important in our queen-to-be's life. Only something truly awful would excuse her tardiness.
But that possibility is quickly dashed away. "No. I checked on them before I came here," Prince Forrest says, his eyes locked on the doors. "Her grandmother made me a delicious breakfast, and her dad gave me a carved wooden figurine. They're happy here. She's the only one who's unhappy."
We fall back into silence and continue to wait. I look around the room and see the wedding preparations have already begun. Influences from each of our courts hang on the walls and from the ceiling. Yet, those aren't the most important parts of a wedding.
Has our queen been fitted for her dress?
I was fitted for my suit yesterday, as were all the princes. Our suits represent our courts well. The silver accents in my black suit play on the ice that covers my land and are a nod to our court stone, the diamond.
I didn't see anyone else's suit, but I'm sure it's more of the same. The elders revel in ceremonial garb and representing our courts. They don't have time or concern for personal taste.
"She's thirty minutes late," the elder says, his tone bordering on enraged.
The massive doors open, and relief hits me like a truck as I turn toward it. She's here !
I'm excited to see her, regardless of how she feels about seeing me, for now. Except, it's not Cassia in the doorway. Instead, four servants stand nervously staring at all of us. Their faces are pale. Uncertainty radiates from every inch of them.
What the hell is going on?
One walks over to Prince Sulien, bows, and whispers in his ear.
We wait for him to respond, but he stands there, a strange look on his face. It's a mix of worry, but there's something else in it. Something that makes me uneasy.
I've known him for a long time. We've played together all our lives when we rotated between the four courts. I've seen him through his best and worst moments. And I can tell when something's off with him.
Something's wrong.
His expression changes to one of anger in a moment, and he jerks back from the servant. "Find her!" he booms, loud enough to make everyone in the room jump. Then he turns to face the guards. "Lady Cassia has gone missing. I want every man, woman, and child out searching for her. Now!"
The servants scurry out of the room, and the guards around us file out along with them. But I can barely focus on them. Cassia is gone? Where? Why? None of this makes sense.
He faces us. "We need to search as well. Pair up and head east, Prince Cobar and Prince Forrest. We'll search the west," he says to me.
My mind is reeling. "What happened to her?"
A stubborn look crosses his face. "It doesn't matter. We just need to find her."
I step in front of Prince Sulien before he can leave and lower my voice. "Do you think she was taken?"
"I don't know," he says, but he won't meet my gaze.
If she wasn't taken, then… "Or did she leave on her own?"
Prince Forrest scoffs. "Why would she leave on her own?"
"She's going to be our queen," Prince Cobar says, shaking his head. "She might have needed some time to warm up to the idea, but surely our mate wouldn't just run away."
Keeping my focus on Prince Sulien, I say, "You didn't answer the question…"
He tries to push past me. I push him back, and his eyes flash with rage. "Watch yourself!"
Watch myself ? When you're the one hiding things about my bride? When you're lying straight to my face? I don't think so.
I shove him again. "Answer the question!"
Anger and desperation comes over his face, and his frustrated words come exploding out. "I don't know! Okay? I don't know!"
Shock flows through me. I asked the question, but I never imagined that answer. Our bride, she really could have run away? Our mate?
Fuck. I press my hand to my chest, and I swear the same pain radiating through my chest radiates through all of us as their hands go to their chests too. The mate bond… It's a powerful thing. No one should be able to resist it. And being separated from one's mate brings pain and misery.
"We need to get her back." And then we need to win her heart. Because, apparently, we haven't .
We were fools not to realize it. Fools to have taken our eyes off of her. And now we have to do whatever we can to get her back and to gain her love.
No matter the cost.