Page 50 of Till Kingdom Come

I was anxious to see Bracca, though hurt that he’d waited so long to come back to Daeneid. I tried to tell myself I had to get used to it. It was a fact that he didn’t love me the way I loved him and never would. I needed to be all right with that, because he’d been honest about it from the start, and our marriage would have to be dissolved soon anyway. I had resigned myself to that bitter truth.

The curse had seen to it that we’d never be truly together, so it was useless to even try. We’d only make ourselves miserable and bring heartbreak to each other in the end. I hadn’t come to this conclusion lightly. I’d spent many nights since he left agonizing over it, in fact, but I couldn’t see a way around it. I’d confided in Hendris and told him how devastated I was about it. I had to have someone to talk to, and he’d been kind to me so far.

Soon, I’d have to talk to Bracca in private and explain to him that he had to leave—to go back home. If he didn’t, the curse would make sure we destroyed each other and we couldn’t allow that to happen.I could never allow Bracca to die. I loved him far too much. I had slowly come to terms with it over the last few days, but it was still killing me. The curse was particularly designed to destroy our happiness. Try as I might, I could find no way around it and no way to fight it.

The doors opened, and King Larek and Prince Bracca strode into the room, accompanied by several of their guards. Both my husband and his father were beautiful men and large ones, though very different in their looks. The king had blond hair that he most often wore in a long braid, whereas Bracca’s hair was long and inky black. He usually wore it loose, and it streamed down all the way to his waist. Bracca had the same stunning good looks as Larek, and they were of a similar size, but his eyes were not the same cold shade as his father’s.

Bracca took my breath away, and the thought of losing him was killing me. I thought it no doubt would in the end.

And though Larek’s face and body looked much younger than his real age, when seen side by side with Bracca, it was obvious he was a much older and harder individual. His voice was quiet, and his teeth weren’t overly large, but they were pointed like needles, showing his demonic blood. His incisors were a bit prominent. He had a coldness and an otherworldliness that was completely missing in my husband too.

King Hendris went to greet them while I excused myself from the council members. I could feel Bracca’s gaze on me. I finished up, excused myself and turned to go to him. He smiled and held out his hand to me, and I went straight into his arms and wrapped myself around him. It was physically painful to do it, but I couldn’t resist.

“You must have missed me,” he whispered to me, loud enough only for me to hear.

“I did,” I whispered back. “Why were you gone so long?”

Hendris was exchanging other pleasantries, I suppose, but I barely paid attention to anything going on around me. All of my focus was on Bracca. Maybe it was because I knew I had to somehow come to terms with leaving him in the next couple of days and tell him our marriage was over. And I didn’t know how I’d be able to do it. I didn’t know if I could make myself say the words.

Bracca spoke with Hendris and some of the council members, but I had no idea what they said. I knew I had to pull myself together, so I straightened up, stepped away and gave a short bow to his father. “Your Majesty. It’s good of you to come.”

“I wouldn’t have missed it,” he replied. “Especially when Bracca told me you’d like for me to be on your Regents Council.”

I felt more than saw Hendris stiffen beside me. I’d come to know him fairly well over the last month, and we’d had dinner together most nights. I knew how he felt about King Larek. Certainly, he didn’t trust him in the least, but he also thought he was dangerous. He wanted me to not allow him any say at all in governing Daeneid. I’d promised him I wouldn’t allow it, and it looked as if now was as good a time as any to let him know.

“Actually, there has been a change in plans, Your Majesty.”

Both Bracca and Larek gave me surprised and hostile looks. Bracca pushed me away from him and peered down into my face.

“What? What kind of change? What’s this about, Killian?”

“Let’s talk about it over dinner, please. When we have more privacy.”

“We’ll talk about it now,” Bracca said, pushing me farther away, his tone aggressive and angry.

“His Majesty, King Killian, has told you he’d speak to you later, sir,” Hendris said, stepping up beside me and taking my elbow to pull me back a step away from Bracca. “But if you insist on knowing, he’s decided that such a large council just isn’t necessary. It’s not something he needs. I believe he said it was your suggestion in the first place.”

That went over about as well as might be expected. Bracca’s face flamed up red and he glared furiously at first Hendris and then me. “What the fuck are you saying?”

“I’m to be named as Killian’s only Regent now,” Hendris said, “The only one he needs. You’ll go back to being his royal consort and nothing more.” He looked Bracca up and down with contempt he seemingly couldn’t control. “Or maybe not even that.”

I had pulled sharply away from Hendris as quickly as I could while he was making this remarkable little speech and stepped back away from both of them. I had dreaded breaking the news about the Regency to Bracca, but at no time had I asked Hendris to do it for me. Anything I could have said would have been better than what he’d just said. Bracca flew up in an instant rage.

I could see it was already far too late to make this any better. Bracca had reeled backward at what Hendris said, with totally the wrong impression, and he wasn’t one to let go of something like that easily—or at all. Larek had an equally suspicious and furious scowl on his face.

“What’s the meaning of all this, Bracca?” he demanded of his son, his voice loud and annoyed. “What does this Elf talking about?” I thought we were probably only seconds away from bloodshed. This had gotten way out of hand, and I had no idea what to do to stop it.

Larek was back to totally ignoring me again, as if I didn’t exist, turning toward Bracca. “Am I to understand we’ve come all this way for no good reason? A deliberate insult? Has this half-breed husband of yours been fucking Hendris behind your back? That didn’t take very long, did it?”

“I don’t know what this is,” Bracca growled in a low, dangerous voice. “But I’m going to find out.”

The tension and sense of barely controlled violence in the room was suddenly so thick you could literally cut it with a knife, and I needed to dispel some of it, quickly.

“Hendris is wrong! And your father too!” I shouted. “Bracca, listen to me. There’s absolutely nothing going on between Hendris and me. Nothing! I swear it!”

“Do you want out of our marriage?”

“No, I never said that, Bracca! Not like that. Please calm down and listen to me. I can explain all of this.”

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