Page 181 of Season Warriors & Wolves

He cleared his throat when she settled on his lap. “They come to warn us.”

“And we shall thank them.”

“Is there a reason why you are bloodied?” I asked.

She looked down at herself. “A resistance has started in Whitebridge. It seems that the land does not wish to belong to us again—or live under our sun. Many injured have fled over these past few weeks and have overfilled our hospitals.”

So we were too late. It had not been a trick. Silas really wanted to divide us all before battle. “And prince Arun?”

“Killed,” Cora said. “A few weeks ago by his wife and presumably by order of her brother.”

Hells. “My condolences for your loss,” I offered. The two had lost two children within such a short time yet they carried their pain too graciously for the hurt they’d gone through.

“We should have known better, but my son did love her. And we thought she loved him back. Maybe she did. Just not more than her duty to her brother. Also, it happens that she had quite a bit of followers on her side.” The Sun Queen’s eyes faltered for a moment and she turned to the fading sun setting on the balcony, almost seeking the comfort of it. Just then, I saw a flash of her real emotion. Bruised violet and fresh—grief was a harsh colour on her. “Enough of them to cause trouble, hence the blood. Whitebridge might not be entirely Cyra blessed, but the people are still Solaryan in all sense. Silas knows he will not turn the people against us and that his next best choice is to eradicate them. He wants to cleanse the land. He started with ours.”

Eren said, “He’s been planning this for a long while. He wishes to discourage you from facing what is to come, to lock you inside your walls afraid.”

“And what is to come?” she asked.

“The inevitable,” I said. “He has the sceptre and Urinthia is mending it together. The guardian will rise any day now.”

The Sun King shut his eyes and heaved a heavy sigh. “It would come, the day would come.”

“We come to ask you to join us.”

His eyes snapped open, heat blistering the space between us. “And leave my kingdom?”

“Perhaps you will want to listen to what we have to offer before you consider Silas’s option and wait to be slaughtered in your motherland. To listen to us and others that will join us in this war by making the same sacrifices as you. Meet with all of us in three days’ time in Olympia.”

Snow was already in her absolutely and barely anything of a nightgown, lying on her back in the middle of our bed, reading a bunch of letters. When I got closer to her, I realised she was reading my letters.

I don’t think I had ever blushed in my life, but the ripple of dither in my stomach reminded me much of the same sensation I had often seen in others. Just the loose memory of what I'd written back when I’d been a boy made me cringe.

It didn’t seem to have the same effect on her though. She was fully grinning despite the silver shine to her golden irises. “You were adorable. I think I fell in love again,” she said, holding the letters tightly to her chest.

Collapsing beside her, I picked the letters from her hand and put them aside. A churning of jealousy soured my mood and I suddenly wanted all of her attention—I was greedy for all of her attention. “Don’t love him. He was an idiot.”

She climbed over me, straddling my lap. “My idiot. And since are you no longer an idiot?”

I smacked her plump arse and pulled her down to me. “You have a way to my heart, woman. Certainly with violence.”

She cleared her throat, resting her chin on my chest. “Your Winter Princess, huh?”

“You were,” I said, running a finger down the bridge of her nose. “My Night Queen.”

She bit on the tip of my finger. “I am not sure what I am at this point. Might as well be that, too.”

“Have you thought about returning to Valda Acme?”

Her features sharpened. “Heavens will not get the pleasure of my company ever again. Not unless they have it in them to repent. On their knees. Possibly bleeding in some form. Suffering without blood is rather pale.” She wiggled her fingers almost to signal marvel. “I’d love to see some heavenly blood.”

“Are you not curious? Of who you are?”

“No, Kil. All I already am is enough and sometimes too much. It might have been different before, but not now—not anymore.”

“Before?”

“When the solution to my nightmares was to destroy all that had caused them.”