Page 24 of The Winter Prince

“Where are the king and queen? You seem like the highest authority here, but the title ’prince’ is not usually the highest authority.”

A pang of loss shot through him at her words. Something must have showed in his demeanor, because she hurried to add, “If this is related to everything else you won’t tell me, I understand. I’ve just been wondering.”

“I don’t know,” he said quietly. “I don’t know where my parents are.” Her face softened at his admission, but he continued. This, at least, he could give her, as painful as it was for him. “It has nothing to do with your other questions. They vanished years ago; no one knows where to. They went out riding one day, and they never returned.”

Her hand raised to cover her mouth. “I’m so sorry,” she whispered through her fingers. “Were you close with them?”

The innocent query twisted through him. “Yes. And no. Their roles didn’t always allow for the closeness I wanted. But I would have done anything for them, happily. I still would.”

“You sound like you love them deeply.”

He nodded. No words would ever properly convey the depth of his love.

Of his concern for them, even now.

“But if it’s been that long,” she continued, “why haven’t you ascended the throne, taken the role of king?”

He grimaced. “Because they’re not dead.” Her brow furrowed, and he could already feel the question that was coming, so he answered it before she could ask. “If they were dead, their pine and moss would have withered with everything else. I would have the full power of the Winter Court at my command. Most of that power is my father’s, but if he perished, it would fall to my mother. Only if both of them were gone would it transfer to me. I am the most powerful Winter Elyri here, and as a member of the royal family, that leaves me with the designation of the Heart of Winter, just like”—he cut himself out before mentioning Enlo’s name—“just as anyone else with my blood would have. So I rule in their absence, but I am not the Winter King, and I will not become the Winter King until my parents have both perished.”

She took all this in with wide eyes. “Have you ever tried to find them?”

He scoffed. “I have sent hundreds of men and women in search of them, but wherever they are, they left no tracks, no clues to follow. Either they do not want to be found”—he pushed away the familiar anger, the betrayal at the idea—“or someone else doesn’t want them to be found.”

The silence weighed heavy with his words. He felt exposed. He’d admitted one of his greatest pains to her. Dread tried to crowd his mind—he’d given her a way to hurt him; if she chose to, she could wield it against him. He had to protect himself, do something to keep her from using it to wound him—

“My mother died only a few years ago.” A heavy weight of familiar sorrow filled her voice. It dragged the dread in his thoughts to a halt. “Brigands along the road when she was visiting a close friend who lived a few days from our home.”

Revi tensed, instantly wanting to find these brigands and punish them. “Were they ever caught?”

“My father hunted for a year before he found them. It’s part of why he was given his position; he became quite familiar with the Makarian countryside and people in the process.” Kienna tucked her hair behind her ear. “But there was this terrible period, a span of a week when her carriage was first found and she wasn’t. A week when we knew something horrible had happened, but we didn’t knowwhat. I was sick with worry and trapped at home. Powerless to do anything. I had only my hope, and it shredded a little more each day.”

He knew the feeling well; he’d lived with it so long it felt an ingrained part of him, even more than his curse did. It made him want to go to Kienna, curl around her and protect her from it, even if only the memory of it.

He cleared his throat. “How did you finally find her?”

“They dumped her body along the road near where the carriage had been. I think they took her because they thought to ransom her, but she’d been injured in the initial attack. It was the infection that actually took her from us.”

A deep growl escaped him. If anyone had ever dared do that tohismother—

He forced the thought away, focusing instead on the woman before him. “I’m sorry. That must have been shattering.”

“It was. Like you, I would have done anything for her.” She took in a shaky breath but tilted her face to smile at him. “It was the worst feeling I’ve ever experienced. But I remember that time of not knowing with a great deal of pain, too. It was only the hope of her return that brought me through it, until we found—” She cut off, squeezing her eyes shut for just a moment. “But youknow. You know they’re alive. And if they’re alive, there’s still hope to find them. Cling to that hope. It will see you through, too.”

What a brave, strong woman she was. Baring what had to be one of the most horrible, painful moments of her life to him, only toencouragehim. He’d never met anyone so incredibly unflinching before.

“I will,” he promised, desperate for something to say. It felt inadequate, after her story, but he wanted to give her something in return. “I will never give up on finding them.”

She nodded, seeming satisfied.

Silence wrapped around them. She picked at her food, but he just sat, wanting nothing more than to study her, understand her. He was searching for something to steer the conversation back to life when she spoke first.

“Is it difficult ruling when you aren’t technically the final authority in your Court?”

He turned his head away from her, tensing. That was so far from a subject he wanted to explore with her. “I learned ways to discourage questions and doubt.”

He didn’t want to see what the admission would mean to her, how she would interpret it. Having to rule had probably been the true beginning of his descent into the beast he was now, but he couldn’t afford to regret that, because he had used it first to secure his Court and later to protect it from outside threats.

Soft fingers sank into the fur at his shoulder. He froze, slowly turning back to look at her.

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