Page 194 of What Lies Within Blood & Heirs

“Ap—apologies, Your Highness.” The princess had the good sense of looking petrified. That evil black dress denied the colors bursting in the sky as she lifted her skirt with daggered nails and curtsied. The courtiers followed.

By Garrik’s pleasure, he didn’t call them to rise. He only said in a smooth voice, “Lower.”

Alora wondered if he found some satisfaction in imagining the female who abused him sinking to her knees. But Garrik drifted away from Alora’s back and strolled behind the females like they were nothing but the dust and dirt they knelt on.

“Bow toher.”

An overwhelming phantom wind threatened her gravity.

Terror and hatred flicked across Erissa’s face, piercing Alora’s poor attempt at masking her features with indifference and unfeeling. Every jeweled, gloved, and trembling palm met the stones. One by one, punching the air from Alora’s lungs until the heads of nobility and class were all but kissing the balcony.

Kaine had never made such a public declaration. Never for her. Not even when he asked her to bond their lives as one.

The golden paint on Garrik’s skin glistened in the exploding fire display in the sky as he sauntered around the bowing females. Crouching beside Erissa, he surveyed her, indulging in the way he tilted her chin up to find his oblivion. His attention settled on the necklace she wore with Silas the night before, and said, “If your jeweled beauty were taken away and all that remained was stone, who would charm their vision with you? Stones are for throwing, not flattering hands.” His finger rubbed that ruby gemstone around her neck.

A flash of white exploded in the sky.

“You willneverbe her.” Garrik forced the princess’s chin higher, stretching her neck to the point of pain. “You will never grace my bed. She will.Alora. Say her name.”

Hissing as if the name vibrating from her throat burned her, Erissa croaked, “Alora,”

A sky filled with stars and bursting sparks of fire and light, yet Garrik stared at Alora as he threatened with absolute finality, “The next time you insult what is mine, you will do muchmore than kneel beneath her feet. History will be eviscerated of your name. Existing not in one memory. Rotting forever in Firekeeper’s pits like your fucking soul.”

Garrik stood, hand twitching ever-so-slightly as he released the necklace and found the blazing eyes of Silas against the far outer wall then looked down on Erissa. Canines flashing. “You may be a princess, but she is a starsdamned queen.”

Her heart stumbled as much as her feet did. A minute, an hour, a lifetime later—she wasn’t certain—but the moment she ripped through Garrik’s shield in the High King’s mountain, her feet followed a familiar path, veering to the left, past the staircases leading to Garrik’s rooms.

Bow to her.

The words drove her from the balcony and chased her through the castle while every darkened corner and shadow begged her to stay. But shecouldn’t. Though the court enjoyed the display of magic in the skies and listened to the incredible thunder crackling, it was Garrik’s voice thrumming in her mind.

You willneverbe her.

Alora gripped her chest—it wasn’t right. Something felt … unsteady.

You may be a princess, but she is a starsdamned queen.

In front of everyone, he had said it. Claimed her. Making certain the mountain knew as it trembled. And that cowardly part of her, hiding deep inside … the part she had thought she buried … it couldn’t handle it. The way he looked at her, splitting her wide open. But … but to surrender her heart to another after the last shattered it …

Mine.He said it again on that balcony.Mine. Mine. Mine?—

The hallway darkened behind her, voiding out the faelights in only a way shadow could.

“Alora.” Something brittle in Garrik’s voice, something cleaved wide open and vulnerable, caused her heart to stumble again.

She turned to find shadows in his eyes. His jacket was unbuttoned, displaying the top of his chest and neck scar she’d daydreamed of running her fingers along. It appeared as if he had run his hands through his hair in a panic. But now, standing feet away in that hallway, he looked … more different from before. More like someone she’d known for centuries, not months.

“You left.” Garrik didn’t step an inch closer. He only whispered, “I looked for you.”

And stars, did she hate herself for doing it.

He’d been looking for her… Just as she would have.

When he opened his mouth, it was Alora’s voice that shook. “Please,” she breathed. “Don’t say anything more.”

Soundless pain flashed across his beautiful face.

They lingered there for more than a few heartbeats, staring at each other as if a new light had fallen. But the small,smallpart of her mind warred with her entire heart and beat it bruised and bloody until all she could do was back away toward her door. Tears in her eyes as she reached for the handle and restrained a strangled sob.

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