Page 212 of The Throne Seeker
His icy eyes grew irritated. “Tristan.” He spat his name through his teeth. “I’m not a fool. I do know what an invitation looks like.”
Rose paused.
He didn’t know?
Xavier’s expression became hard as she gawked at him. “Why are you looking at me like that?”
She opened her mouth only to close it again. “No one… no one told you?”
“Told me what?” he asked.
She blinked as the realization set in. He really had no idea. “Xavier… Tristan and I never got married.”
A tense silence followed. Now it was his turn to stare. Nothing but the sound of shuffling hooves and popping torches filled the air.
His iceberg eyes melted into a river. He slowly unfolded his arms. “What?” he whispered.
Her throat bobbed. “We didn’t get married,” she repeated.
“You didn’t… you didn’t marry him?” His voice was raw. Hesitant.
She shook her head.
Xavier’s expression flipped like a coin. He drew closer, shadows dancing across his sharp cheekbones. “Who did he marry?”
She couldn’t hold his gaze. “The Vertmerian princess, Satin… She’s with child.” Her voice cracked, having to say it aloud.
“Why didn’tyoumarry him?” he asked, monitoring her reaction carefully.
The question stung sharper than it should have. “Does it matter?”
He took another step closer. “It matters a great deal.”
She gazed back up into his eyes. The look he was giving her… it was like the information had…changedsomething for him. “There were a lot of reasons I ended things.”
“Youended it?” he clarified.
She nodded again.
His lips parted as his face inched to hers, holding her gaze with a new tenderness. “I didn’t know. If I did… Gods, I’m sorry, I should’ve been there.” He reached out to her?—
She knew that look.
She swiped his hand away, stepping back. Her young heart screeched in rebellion, sensing his hurt before it spread onto his face.
But she was hurt, too.
“You’re right,” she said with as cold a voice as she could muster. “You should have. But you didn’t want to be.”
His face twitched with regret. “I know, and I hate myself for what I did to you.”
She kept him pinned under her scrutinizing gaze. “And like an idiot, I forgave you. Almost immediately, I forgave you. I hate how you made me believe it was my fault you lost the crown, but now I find it’s exactly what you wanted all along.”
Xavier’s eyes faltered as if he couldn’t stand her disappointment.
“Why?” she demanded, raising her voice even as it cracked. “Why couldn’t you love me back? What about me was so repulsive to you?”
The question broke him. Like a bolt of lightning, he trapped her with his body against the wooden post, forcing her inches away from his face.
