Page 74 of Heir to His Court

Her voice choked on the final word, the pain so immense I could neither move nor blink nor shed tear under the weight of it.

A pain I recognized. Had endured, had caused.

What. . .wasit with this bloodline? Were we all cursed to repeat the same mistakes over and over and over again?

“Yes,” Raniel said.

Nayya took her consort’s sword, then looked at her daughter, sorrow and resignation in her gaze. “I love you, Ayyarah. Nothing you could do would ever kill my love for you. But I cannot allow you to escape the consequences of your actions.” The male in silver armor did not move. “Our family stewards too much power and if we don’t control ourselves, we will destroy the realms.”

Then why,I thought, a bitter, critical onlooker,have so many children?

“Love,” Raniel said. “It is her weakness, the remnant of her lost humanity. She is always searching, seeking to find in my father what he is not entirely capable of giving. Each child was her answer to his remoteness.”

“And who will hold you responsible foryours,mother?” Ayyarah was saying, wielding the word mother like a weapon.

“I failed you, and I am sorry.”

“Love,” Ayyarah snarled, the sea breeze stirring her hair. “You never loved me. You aren’t capable of it. You ruined me, like you and father ruined all of your spawn. My son will grow strong, and avenge my death. He will never callyoumother in his heart.”

Nayya swung the sword, a tear sliding down her cheek.

The boy screamed.

Assariel turned away. In the distance the skies darkened and a tidal wave formed.

ChapterTwenty-Two

“Why did you show me that?” I asked, my wrists still captured in his hands as I opened my eyes to the dark, quiet bedroom and the warrior Prince pressing me into the bed. His grief and unwinding rage filled my lungs.

“To buy you time,” Raniel said, voice an invitation to succumb to his beguilement. To take comfort in it. I need not worry about Renaud, about the politics of the city, about Juhainah. He would shelter me from all, if only I gave in to him.

“I thought,” I said, “you wanted me to be strong, to rule at your side.”

“Is that incompatible with submission to me?” He sighed when I didn’t respond. “That memory broke Renaud’s hold. We find it jarring. I am sorry.”

This,thiswas the family. . .Renaud wanted me to bring a child into.

I pushed him off me. He moved gracefully to his feet, standing still beside the bed, his gaze keen on my face.

“Don't pretend it doesn't serve your agenda as well," I said, bitter and tired of his games. Their games. "Don't think, for one moment, that I don't know what you want from me.”

The Trident. Its power.

“You know some part of what I—we—want from you. Not all.”

I slid off the bed—on the opposite side. “And are you in agreement with this?” I waved a hand down my body. “With Renaud’s recompense?”

He did not answer, eyes alien with old, distant thoughts.

I leaned down, digging my talons into the bed to anchor myself. “Raniel, damn you.”

“I choose not to answer the question.”

My fingers twitched. “I can make you.”

His eyes chilled. “You. . .cannot. I welcome you, of course, to engage in the attempt, and to suffer the consequences.”

I stared up at him, still bent over. “Which one of you is it right now?”

---