Page 32 of A Trial of the Heart

“I’ll see you tonight, my mate.” Adohan took Idris’s hands and kissed them both before taking her lips with his own. The embrace was soft and tender with love and compassion beaming like a ray of light around them. Adohan then knelt and affectionately rubbed Idris’s belly, kissing it softly before rising to find her lips once more. “I can’t wait to see how beautiful you look in the gown you made for the occasion.”

“You won’t be able to keep your eyes off me,” Idris quickly said. I could see the longing look of concern lingering behind Idris’s brave illusion of confidence.

Adohan reluctantly released Idris’s hands and ascended the staircase behind Seamus, followed by Daxton. I clutched onto Castor as tightly as I could. My legs shook as I watched our companions reluctantly march toward Queen Minaeve’s chambers in the western wing. Each step they took forced them to retreat further into themselves and don the mask they needed to survive. They had to play the part of devoted subjects or else risk raising suspicion.

Seamus stopped at the top of the steps, leaning over the railing as he watched Daxton pass him. “She’s especially anxious to see you … Silver Shadow.” He had the audacity to chuckle and roll his head to the side, turning to glare at the three of us who remained on the main floor. “Pick whichever rooms suit your needs, Castor. The lower-level bedrooms on the other wing are all available.”

Castor nodded, refusing to give any hint or sign of his displeasure that I knew was raging like a sandstorm beneath his calm, dark brown stare. His composure, like Daxton’s, was utterly astonishing. My animal, on the other hand, was the opposite of calm. She was raging inside my chest, sending waves of aggressionand fury that were pulsing inside of me, making it extremely difficult to remain composed.

Daxton didn’t even bother reacting to Seamus’s comment. He kept his stoic expression plastered on his face. He simply continued on his way to the western wing of the palace, silently marching toward what I knew he dreaded and despised most in this world.

“They both will be all right,” Castor said aloud to Idris and me.

I looked to Idris, who fought to hold back the tears coating her eyes. She encircled her growing belly and fought to steady her shaking limbs. I released Castor and rushed to her side, looping an arm over her shoulder to try to comfort her.

“Idris—”

“Don’t,” she snapped.

I didn’t take offense to her reaction. She was forced to watch her mate heed the call of a female who, in the past, had forced him to sleep with her and siphoned his magic from him. Queen or not, this was wrong. We didn’t know what her intentions were for Adohan or Dax, but we knew that tonight, she was planning to make a public spectacle of their submission.

“Come on,” Castor encouraged us. “Our rooms are this way.”

The ornate decorations of the palace entrance continued through the halls as Castor guided us to the opposite wing, where we would stay for the evening. Gold, green, and black were the three main colors of note in the decor with a hint of dark turquoise hidden amongst the swirls of gold. Tapestries adorned the halls with Minaeve as the main focus of each centerpiece. Even without her physical presence, she plastered herself across this entire palace, making sure everyone here knew she was the sole power in charge. The pictureswithout her in them also held a symbolic presence of her power and sole rulership over the Inner Kingdom. Even the vines growing along the windows, I now realized, reminded me of the High Fae queen herself. Deadly, beautiful, and treacherous.

At the end of the hall, Idris somberly opened the door to her room, which was directly across from mine and Castor’s adjacent lodgings. “Idris?”

She turned and glanced toward me in the doorway, her vibrant smile gone as heartbreak overshadowed her joy. “I just need a moment. I will kick Castor out and help you prepare for the ball in an hour. I just need to rest…”

“You don’t have to. I’m sure I can manage,” I protested, not wanting to ask any more from her.

“No, I do,” she said firmly. “I need to keep busy. If I just sit here and do nothing, I’ll go mad.”

I nodded. “See you in an hour.”

The door closed to the hallway, and I swore I heard the faint sound of her cries whisk through the cracks under the door. My heart broke hearing her sorrow, knowing that this was not the first time she had to endure seeing her mate like this. It was wrong. There was no other way to describe it.

“We’re in here,” Castor said as he opened the door to my room. No, excuse me,ourroom.

I stepped inside and marveled at the vast splendor covering every inch of this place. This room was vastly different, with light blue walls framed in gold accents, decorated with a gold textured ceiling, and vast arrays of different floral arrangements. The large, white-sheeted canopy bed was pushed against the wall on the near side, and vast open windows looked out onto the crystal-blue water of the lake.

My heart longed for my home in Solace. The log cabin house felt connected and open to the nature surrounding it. This palace room was unnatural, like an over-the-top display to try and distract someone from seeing the true horrors beneath.

Castor strode to the opposite side of our quarters to reveal a doorway leading to a smaller adjacent bed chamber. “This is where I’ll sleep,” he said. “I’ll ward the room so no one can hear inside or enter without my knowledge.” Castor kept his gaze turned away from me as he leaned against the wall, sighing heavily as he crossed his arms. “It’ll help the illusion of our boisterous lovemaking smokescreen.”

“Right.” I sighed as I sat on the edge of the pristine white bed.

“We also each have our own washroom. Luckily, these rooms were built to house private servants’ quarters,” Castor said.

“Servants?”

“Yes, that or consorts.”

“You mean … whores?” I asked, uneasy with the thought of anyone having to sell their body for profit or status. A wave of disgust and anger rolled through me that I didn’t fight to suppress.

“More or less,” Castor said. “Even before Minaeve took her mantle, the high princes of the three realms did not share their title or power with their significant other. They take wives—even, at times, multiple consorts—hoping to continue their line of succession with an heir. But they never shared the title.”

“Wait. Not even your parents shared the title in Silver Meadows?” That fact surprised me.

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