23. Aldrin

Chapter 23

Aldrin

I run my hands through my hair, then down my face and collapse into my chair. I watch those doors, as though I expect Keira to return.

“I made a mistake, didn’t I?” I utter. “In the way I handled that.”

“It would seem that way.” Cyprien takes the smaller throne next to mine. “She is the one Lorrella prophesied about, isn’t she? The second daughter of the Lord Protector of Appleshield, who will help you bring our two cultures together.”

I close my eyes for a long moment. “Yes. Yes, she is. I thought at the time—that maybe - who knows what seers mean with the riddles they give?”

Cyprien’s lips press into a thin line. “Are you going to tell her?”

“Yes. No. I honestly have no idea. You know what happened the last time I spoke of that prophecy.”

“She has a right to know.” Cyprien’s tone is low.

I look at him, then look away. “I will scare her away entirely. Let me get the timing right.”

A frown pinches his brow. “It appears she will help you through this Prince Finan. You can’t keep seducing the future wife of a king you want as an ally. ”

“Can’t I?” I raise an eyebrow at him. “It sounds like the man is a fool, and Keira as queen would be my ally.”

“Regardless. Casual sex will complicate an alliance. This is more important than your urges, Aldrin.”

I slump back into my chair. “Maybe you should have some urges of your own and lighten up,” I grumble. “Maybe that’s why there is a stick up your ass, you just need a good f?—”

“Aldrin. Careful.” Cyprien gives me a hard look, but a quirk to his lips that hints at a smile. For Cyprien, he might as well be beaming.

I’ve been spending too much time with Drake and his horrible humor is rubbing off on me.

I cannot get the smell of Keira out of my head. The taste of her.

How her hands ran over my body like she wanted every inch of me and the way her fingers curled around my cock. The memory of her stroking and pumping my length is enough to drive me insane. I need more of her. To try everything with her.

Something deep within my soul calls to hers, but Cyprien is right.

I have to tread carefully with my next steps. The fate of this entire realm could depend on her. For all I know, Keira has taken her sister and left.

I rub my eyes. “For years, I have been trying to work out a path to the humans. When Keira was compelled by the bargain, I couldn’t stop myself from asking every question that has plagued me since I was exiled. The answers to all my problems were offered up on a silver platter, and all I had to do was reach out and take them. I didn’t mean to hurt her, or abuse her trust, but I did it anyway.” Shame slices through me.

“Why are you telling me?” Cyprien barks. “Take a jug of wine and a platter of food to her chambers, and tell her you are sorry.”

Cyprien points to the banquet tables laid out with hot meats, spiced vegetables on skewers and wine. I didn’t notice the servants enter. I do as he tells me, balancing a tray and jug as I leave the hall and descend through the fortress.

I try to practice what I am going to say in my head, but the words won’t come .

Cold sweat trickles down my back as I reach the door to her chamber. I cannot hear sobbing through it, and a wave of relief rushes through me. Muffled voices drift through as I juggle the items in my hands and knock on the door. A silence falls in the room, then footsteps approach. I swallow nervously.

Keira opens the door, her expression masked. She doesn’t frown or scold or show signs of tears. Behind her, Caitlin sits on the floor cross-legged, sharpening a blade with a whetstone.

“Very considerate of you, Aldrin.” Keira takes the platter of food and the jug of wine from my hands, and uses her foot to shut the door in my face.

I stand there, on the threshold, for a long moment, in complete disbelief. She just dismissed me.

I knock on the door again. “I came here to talk to you.”

“I’m busy, Aldrin,” she calls back.

Dread fills me. She is definitely angry. “Hear me out. I want to apologize.”

The door cracks open a notch, only enough to reveal half her face. “Not tonight, Aldrin,” Keira says simply, as though the fatigue of a hundred years rests upon her soul. “Not tonight.” She closes the door again, gently this time.

At least she hasn’t disappeared into the night. I don’t think I could handle never seeing her again.

I return to the feast hall, blinking as the light burns my eyes in contrast with the blackness outside.

“I’m guessing it didn’t go well?” Drake laughs and chucks a strip of meat in his mouth.

Klara nudges him in the ribs and he almost falls out of his seat at one of the banquet tables. “Don’t be a nosy bastard.” She turns her violet gaze on me. “Are you okay?”

The question jolts me out of my reprieve. How has Keira gotten so far under my skin? The armor of a king, of a leader, snaps back into place over my emotions and expression alike.

“Fine. It’s bloody cold and dark out there.”

“Yeah,” Drake says. “I told Kai he was insane swimming in the Frozen River. The damn kelpies have spent this entire time fawning over the Lake Maiden. Something to do with giving her the worship that is her due.”

I nod. I had wondered where they had gotten to.

There’s no use trying to keep track of kelpies or relying on them to stay where you want them.

I walk away as Klara explains to Drake that the whole reason kelpies are nomads and travel the courts is to pay their respects to the different waters and their guardians, in a near religious pilgrimage. She says it as though he is stupid for not knowing. There is such a huge grin on his face, I wonder if he is baiting her again.

I return to that throne on the dais, not feeling like mingling with the dozen of soldiers who now drink and eat and talk in the hall, both mine and Cyprien’s. While I was gone, long tables and benches were brought in, including a set at the throne, already laden with food. Cyprien joins me, perching on the edge of the smaller throne.

“She’s definitely still angry,” I admit.

“Losing your touch with women, Aldrin?” A cruel smile curls Cyprien’s lips. “Maybe you should spend less time in the wildlands and return to the Senate.”

I whip my head to him. “You know I can’t do that. I have been exiled. The council will refuse to hear me.”

“But they will hear me,” Cyprien urges, tapping his foot in rapid succession. “If I invite you to the Senate, to give evidence on what we have all seen at the border here, then they have to allow you into the city and the Senate.”

I let out a bitter laugh. “We will have to be clever about it. I will struggle to step foot into the city, but the Senate house? The high chancellor would never allow it.”

“Then we won’t announce your presence until I raise my concerns before the council and call on you into the house to give evidence.” He is deadly serious. There is that half-mad glint in his eyes, the one when he forms a daring plan. The very look that has won me many battles.

I drink from a chalice of wine. “Will it be enough? If they didn’t believe me all those years ago when I was their king, why would they believe us now? How can adding your testament help so much?”

Cyprien presses his lips into a thin line. “Things have changed a lot since then. The high councilor has shown her true colors, her ruthlessness and disregard for fact. The people are far worse off under her. Titania has fixed none of the problems you faced under your reign, and they have only grown worse. I believe our court is ready to accept the real threat that faces us, especially without a new and shiny politician making promises and discrediting you.”

“Oh, she will still discredit me,” I retort.

“She will,” he allows. “But this time, she too has lost the confidence of the Senate and people.”

I ponder that thought for a long time. Returning to my city and my home.

“Your people need you back in power, Aldrin,” Cyprien says, and the gravity of it radiates through me.

I have known him for most of my life, inside and out, and he is not a man to play political games. I can trust him in this, because if he wanted to destroy me, he would have arrested me for treason by now.

“Okay,” I say. “Let’s do this. Let’s return to the capitol and take on the high chancellor.” I tap the armrest of the golden throne with a finger. “We need more evidence than our words and memories. Even if we bring corrupted low fae it won’t be enough. I will collect an entire party of nymphs from the borderlands to speak of how their magic is disappearing along with that of the land and the great scars upon this realm. We will demand the council visit the border themselves.”

“Titania will argue that you have betrayed us to the Winter Court and that it is a trap,” Cyprien says.

“Then we will take them to the border of summer. It is just as devastating. There is no way she could spin the same lies about our oldest ally,” I quickly cut in.

“It could work.” A rare smile grows on his face. “It could work.”

The idea grows rapidly within my mind. “I have to take the risk. I am achieving precious little out here. Killing corrupted fae helps to redistribute their magic back into the ground, but there is always more.”

Cyprien takes a flatbread and tears pieces from it, placing them in his mouth. “We should structure your journey to collect low fae witnesses to coincide with the human women’s mission to spread Odiane’s seed-stones. It is a noble cause, and it will allow you more time to win back Keira as an ally.”

“I don’t even know where to start with that,” I admit, halting the piece of meat I was about to bring to my lips. My appetite suddenly disappears.

Cyprien continues as though I never spoke. “Perhaps she may be a queen one day, perhaps not. She already has the connections we need, as does her sister, with easy access to these priestesses and their lord protector.” He leans closer to me; an intensity in his voice as he drops it low enough for only me to hear. “You need to work out what capacity you want her to be in your life before it gets messy; friend, lover, wife.”

I recoil from him. “Hold up there, Cyprien. You see a man kiss a beautiful woman once, and assume we are going to marry.” I try to laugh it off.

“You forget, I know you, Aldrin.” Cyprien pulls himself up and walks away without a glance back, leaving me stunned.

I am not looking for a romance. How could I when my life is in tatters? I am facing the potential death of my realm and civil war of my court.

But if Keira asked me to her bed tonight, I could not stop myself.