Page 27 of Ties of Starlight

Idonea’s mouth parted in a sharp gasp and color flooded to her cheeks. “You might be king, and I might be bound to you as your wife, but if you think I’m going to let you control my thoughts and emotions, you are gravely mistaken, Your Majesty.”

Had this been what she’d been doing all these years? Taking every word out of his mouth and twisting it? This time he failed to rein his boiling emotions in after days of stewing in his humiliation and jealousy. The fervor was quickly boiling his blood and running away with his tongue.

“Do you really think it’s a wise idea to tell your husband you’re going to ignore his advice so you can continue worrying about and pining over the man you wish you’d married instead of him?”

“Calling an order advice is far more creative of you than I expected, Your Majesty.” She spat the honorific as if it was a great insult. The fact that she still would not call him by his name dug under his skin. He’d been giving her the space she’d screamed that she wanted and yet all she’d done with it was sigh and wring her hands over that worthless creature.

“If you think that was an order, then you think of me far more kindly than you ought to. If I give you an order, you’ll know it.” Nyrunn nearly shattered his jaw from how tightly he was clenching it to keep the words from spilling out of him from Olaug’s letter.

It was so tempting to let it out and shatter the perfect image of him she had, but the part of him that cared about her more than he cared about his wounded pride and seething jealousy won out. He swallowed back down the words Olaug had written about how he could not even “suffer” her to have an heir.

He took a deep breath and said, “I’m saying it for your own good. Let me do my job as king and handle Olaug. You are better off forgetting about him.”

Idonea stepped back, wrapping her arms around herself, one hand sinking into the fabric of her nightgown right over the birthmark he’d seen the other day. Her eyes were wide and there was a tremor to her voice. “Or what?”

He couldn’t sense anything on the other side of the bond, but her expression and voice gave her away.

He stared at her for a moment. “Do you… How little do you think of me to think that was a threat?”

She shifted back, eyes skimming over him before her voice came out in a raspy whisper. “You’re Captain Bror’s nephew. King Hrorr’s son.”

She might as well have plunged a knife into his chest.

“You have no estimation of my character outside my father and uncle?”

“If you should like to be judged on your actions, then I shall!” She let out a sharp, breathy laugh and started counting on her fingers. “Let’s see, the first time we met you swept into the library as though you were the only one in the world, interrupted me as I was trying to reshelve a set while standing on a ladder, nearly sending me to theground by scaring me, but certainly causing me to make a mess and one of those books to this day still has a damaged corner. You then proceeded to interrogate me about who I was and how I could be qualified to work in the royal library, insulting both my age and my lineage—because how could a half-elf possibly be good enough for the royal library?”

He opened his mouth, a thousand defenses rising to his lips, but her sharp laugh and shake of her head stopped him.

“Of course, I made the mistake of not immediately recognizing the crown prince and falling over myself to accommodate you.” She raised an eyebrow. “Or shall we recount all the times you came to the library with the sole purpose of trying to get under my skin and make me snap so you could have me fired without looking like the cause? How about all the times you tried to distract me and keep me from doing my job to get me in trouble? How about when you tried to manipulate the Head Librarian into giving me fewer shifts? Years of torment all because I didn’t recognize who you were the second I saw you. Was that one crime really worth years of cruelty?”

“Cruelty?” Nyrunn sputtered.

“You relentlessly mocked me. All those little digs at my ears and my hair. You never let an opportunity pass to emphasize my lack of height. You took any chance to make me blush and embarrass me. You would stare at my—” She wrapped her arms around herself tighter, cheeks staining red. “—atme, and all the things that make it clear I’m not a full-blooded elf, all with that awful, cold, calculating look, criticizing me in your head. Then you’d have a laugh, mocking me, calling me beautiful when you clearly thought I was anything but.”

This… He couldn’t say everything was making sense, because none of this made any sense, but he was starting to see why she hated him.

While he’d put it together she had twisted every single word he’d ever spoken against him, he’d been unable to see how. Was it never even a possibility in her mind that she thought he meant it?

He whispered, “You thought every time I told you that you were beautiful that I was mocking you?”

“Is there some other explanation? I’m not stupid! You’re a prince. I’m a mongrel.” Her voice cracked and she cleared it, knuckles turning white. “I know my human blood and my human-ish features make me repulsive to most elves. I know I’ve never once been beautiful by your standards. And what better way to humiliate me after I insulted you than to remind me of my place and how undesirable I am by rubbing my face in my imperfections?”

That’s what she thought of herself? What she believed he thought of her? Amongrel?

She truly had no idea how much he’d meant every word he’d said to her.

He shook his head with a low, bitter chuckle. All he could say was…

“You are a master at twisting anything and everything to fit your narrative.”

Idonea let out a hysterical, shrill laugh in return. “What else could it have been?”

He could hardly tell her he thought she was the most stunning creature he’d ever laid eyes on now that he was trying to distance his feelings for her from their marriage. And if she hadn’t believed him the last hundred times he’d tried to compliment her, he doubted she was about to start now.

So he stayed silent. He should have been silent from the start.

She took a long breath at his silence and said, “So, if you must know, my estimation of your character is not just limited to your relatives. I have plenty of personal experience to base my judgments on as well.”

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