Page 214 of The Throne Seeker
“I shouldn’t have let you do that.” Rose tried to gain distance, but he kept her pinned.
“Why not?” he breathed, his lips nearly on hers again.
Her siren urged her to let him, ready to taste his fresh, cool breath again.
She beat it down until it relinquished control.
“Because I’m in love with someone else,” she revealed quickly, breaking the news.
“I don’t care,” he declared, as if the fact was no more than an insignificant nuisance. “I’m not letting you slip through my fingers again. Whoever it is will have to fight me for you.”
She hung her head down with guilt.
“Who?” he demanded.
She bit her lip, not knowing how to tell him. “You don’t want to know.”
Xavier gripped her jaw, forcing her to look at him. “Who?” he growled.
She forced her lips apart. “Roman,” she whispered.
He finally released her, taking two involuntary steps back. Not a single word left his lips as his mind processed the name she’d just uttered. He just stared at her, his face growing more vile by the second.
“That has to be a sick joke,” he managed to get out with a scowl.
“He was there for me, Xavier,” she said, pushing herself off the stable post she’d been pinned against. “When you left, when we said our goodbyes—it was the closure I needed to move on. I let you go, thinking you never intended to return. I was at my lowest after Tristan’s wedding, and Roman stepped in. He helped me. When no one else was there, he was.” Just talking about him made her miss him terribly.
Xavier’s jaw locked, the fire in his eyes dimming fast. “I see.” His gaze faltered to the ground, searching it.
A ferocious pain attacked her heart as her throat tightened; she was unable to swallow, to even breathe. It was excruciating—like poison surging its way into every vein. Savage and harrowing.
Not her pain.
Hispain.
She gazed at him pitifully. “I couldn’t wait for a ghost forever.”
Xavier nodded slowly, not meeting her eyes. “He’s the best of all of us… He deserves someone like you.”
His pain did not yield. She couldn’t bear it.
“I tried to tell you,” she whispered lamely.
The mask she’d managed to melt hardened back into ice, sealing itself back into place just as fast as it had slipped off. “I should go,” he said, dangerously low, “be with my mother… How bad is she?”
Rose let the subject go, ignoring the muted ache that pulsed at her heart. “It’s not good,” she said, not bothering to sugarcoat it. He wouldn’t want that. “But she’ll be thrilled to see you.”
Xavier peered at the castle through the open doors in hesitation. His pause was so long she wondered if he was reconsidering.
“I could walk with you?” she offered.
She was sure he’d refuse, but to her surprise, he nodded.
She did her best to smother both their emotions as she said, “Come on, I’ll take you to her.”
CHAPTER 77
Rose and Xavier climbed the stairs to the queen’s chambers in silence. She was grateful for her hood acting as a barrier to ease the tension. But no amount of barriers would be powerful enough to block the heartache that continued to leak from him.
