Page 87 of The Lord of Whispers

“Yeah? Who is it this time?” I asked.

“Lord Dempsey’s youngest daughter, Karina Dempsey,” he replied. “My father has been looking to increase our foothold in the ports in the northeast run by House Dempsey. Anyway, Karina is supposed to come to the High Court permanently, beginning with the Fall Ball later this year. I agreed to ‘court’ her the first three months she is at the High Court.”

I raised my eyebrows in a show of surprise. The fact that Luke reached this agreement with his mother spoke volumes to just how badly he really wanted the spot on the High Council. Historically, Luke had been very resistant to his parents trying to foist any kind of romantic entanglement upon him.

“Does Jay know? About the High Council part, I mean, not the Lady Dempsey part,” I clarified.

“I haven’t told him yet. Wanted to tell you first. But, you know, knowing Jay, he probably does already know,” Luke said.

As if on cue, Jay entered the small parlor moments later. But he only had eyes for me.

Seeing that Jay wanted to speak to me, Luke said, “I need to go find Rhett and tell that bastard that I made it on the High Council before he did.”

I went to Jay, lackadaisically, in no rush to have our first conversation of the day. We stood in silence near the doorway as Stefan’s ballad played in the background. The music swelled into a crescendo. I had learned Jay’s lesson regarding the use of silence like a weapon too well. I waited, unperturbed in the expansive silence that lingered between us, scanning the room and taking a sip of my drink.

Jay broke our silence first.

“Come back home, Alarie,” he asked.

His tone and aspect were neutral. He could have been commenting on the weather, but the muscles in his jaw clenched, showing his effort at restraint. I let more silence linger before I side-stepped his plea.

“Lord Dumont offered me a job. Senior counselor for his House,” I said.

I looked at Jay. He wasn’t surprised. Of course, the Lord of Whispers already knew.

“I’m going to take it, Jay.”

More seconds of silence expanded between us. He’d expected that, too.

“I love you,” my beautiful, strong high lord, the Contra who could cow a King, whispered.

Don’t do this, his words left unsaid. It was probably the closest the high lord had ever come to begging for anything in his entire life.

I felt empty inside as I steeled myself. I could see the silent plea in his eyes, my intrepid mentor nowhere to be found in that desire for me to return his love. Panic began to rise in me as my feelings for the high lord tried to claw their way out of the cold steel box I had enclosed them in.

I took a deep breath, repressing the panic rising in me until I found the ruthlessness inside of myself that I had relied upon so many times before in life to do what I needed to do, no matter how difficult.

“I know, Jay, but I don’t. I don’t love you anymore,” I said flatly, not knowing if it was true or not as I said it.

Throughout all our fucking and fighting, the words had developed, letter by letter, word by word, in the back of my mind. I had held onto them, cautiously collecting them, hiding them like a grenade with a loose pin.

It wasn’t what I had planned to say. It wasn’t even what I had planned to do. But, in that moment, I was confident that it was the only thing I could say to make him let me go. I turned my back to him without another word and sought out the bellow of Luke’s laughter.

Epilogue

Rex

That's it. Just a little more.

I pushed my will into the head of my weaver. I sat comfortably on my throne at the Diamond Court in Alancia, a simple crown adorned with diamonds resting atop my swath of platinum blond hair as my piercing gray-blue eyes stared out at the few lords and ladies who had been brave enough to show up to Court that day. Those present hoped to benefit from my good mood should things go according to plan, but they risked much being near my wrath if the events of the day did not go to my liking. Admittedly, I was prone to defenestration when displeased.

I could feel and see my weaver who stood at the southernmost border of Alancia hundreds of miles away from where I sat on my throne. Taking note of the perspiration rolling down his pallid face in beads, I knew that the weaver’s mind was moments away from breaking.

But it would be worth it if I can pull this off at last.

King Heroux thought he could keep me out of Valencia. He thought he could keep me away from what was rightfully mine with his web of intricately weaved magic. The invisible magical wall between Valencia and Alancia was an impressive bit of magic, I would give him that. But anything could be undone with enough time, and what was time to an immortal? Since the moment the magical barrier between the two kingdoms had gone up nearly twenty-three years ago, I had maintained a constant rotation of weavers working to undo the unparalleled magic King Heroux had put in place.

It was an unnatural bit of magic too, throwing the balance of all fae’s magic off. I had experimented with different holes in the wall along different locations, and it seemed like the ambient magic would keep those holes open, maybe even worsen them slightly, but the magic had not altogether gotten rid of the damned wall. And then King Heroux had gone behind me, foreclosing on whatever progress I had made. But all along, I had focused my best people on a solitary area in the wall. I would not let anything come between me and my future queen.

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