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“Which makes it even more important we get Navalis back. So we can claim vengeance and lay my family to rest.”
“I will not watch you die, too.” He takes my hands. “You seek vengeance. I will get that for you. My sword and shield are yours, but if you can just stay safe—”
“You’re asking me to sit out?” I pull away and stand.
“I’m asking you to survive. To let the Rossingol line continue.”
Anger flushes my skin as it heats my cheeks. “I will not sit on the sidelines, Fort. I thought you of all people understood that.”
He gets to his feet and crosses over toward me, but I take a step back. “What you’re doing is dangerous. Can’t you see that? If something happens to you, the realm and Navalis are both lost.”
“And if something happens to you, everything will be just fine? Bowman? Or are you planning on telling the King of Navalis he has to sit this one out, too?”
“Bowman is different,” he retorts.
“Why? Because he’s a man?”
“No.”
“Because you’re not sleeping with him?”
“Dammit—no!”
“Then why?”
“Because I’m not in love with him!” he roars. Shadow raises his head and regards us with a curious stare before lying back down, almost annoyed at the disruption. I barely notice, though, my attention firmly on Fort.
"Our relationship does not change what I need to do. I thought you understood that.”
“So did I,” he snaps.
Silence consumes us all while anger burns hot in my veins. “How dare you ask me to sit high in some Soreno tower while everyone around me fights? How dare you expect that of me when you wouldn’t expect the same of my brother or my father.”
Fort doesn’t say anything, though his throat bobs as he swallows hard.
“I don’t know what crawled in your ass since yesterday when you were proud of the queen I’ve become, but I can promise you that I have no intention of letting you become yet another person in my life telling me what I am and what I’m not capable of, Fort.”
“That’s not what I’m trying to do.”
“It’s exactly what you’re trying to do,” I snap back. “Dress it up any way you choose, but at the core of it, you’re so afraid of losing me that you’re just as willing to put me in chains as they were. Tell me, are you going to require I marry Patrick, too? So he can keep me safe behind his tall walls?”
Fort’s gaze is murderous. “Fuck no.”
“You sure? Because you’re acting a lot like my—” Fort is across the distance before I can even get the sentence off. He grips my arms and backs me against a tree, pinning me between it and his hard body.
“I am responsible for Alex’s death whether you want to believe it or not. And because I led our soldiers away from Navalis where they were ambushed and slaughtered, there were not enough men to keep you and the rest of your family safe when the Tenebris came. Those are facts, Carleah. And I’ve been so distracted by my love for you that I’ve forgotten what my duties are.”
“And just what are your duties?” I ask, tears burning in my throat.
“To protect the crown of Navalis and to shield the Rossingol family with my life. It’s the oath I took when I was old enough to join the guard and the oath I will die to honor.”
“What happened to last night? To you telling me that you only fight for me?”
He pulls away. “I realized that it’s one and the same. For you are the future of the realm, and risking you just so you can prove you’re more than a princess is foolish.”
The insult is like poison in my veins. “Foolish?”
“I’ve given you my opinion and asked you to stay out of the danger. If you don’t listen, then you’re just as bad as Alex. Stubborn to the fucking core.”
