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“She…? She what…?” The king swayed on his feet and reached for the bedpost.
I shouldn’t linger. I picked up my clothes, discarded beside the bed last night, and tugged them on.
Arin was dressed now too. He slammed the dagger down on the dresser and yanked his hair back into a tail, his every movement as sharp as any blade. “It’s time you abdicated,” Arin said, like the final thrust of the knife to his father’s chest.
“No.” The king slumped. “No, I cannot…”
“Under me, our court—our kingdom—will survive. I’ve been working to save it. To do what you cannot.”
His father’s mouth fell open and closed, open and closed, his jowls loose. “By fucking Lark?”
“Forget Lark!” Arin snapped. “By Dallin, I am ashamed of you. It is because of you we are weak!”
His father’s shoulders folded in, and he buried his face in his hands. “It was never supposed to come to this.”
I’d moved away, to the periphery, unseen and forgotten for a moment. And what I saw before me was a portrait of decay. Pain would tear Albus apart; in many ways it already had. Arin though, he stood over his father as the king in waiting. And he might just be the only hope the Court of Love had left.
The king stared at his own trembling hands. “Where did it go so wrong?” He curled his fingers into fists and looked up at his son. “Yes, you are right… we will discuss this, later. We have guests… It’s what I came to tell you, unannounced guests…” he mumbled. “When you wouldn’t answer the door, I… came in…” His face crumpled. “Oh, my Katina.” Sobs spluttered out of him. “A fool… I’ve been a fool…”
Arin’s backhanded slap rang like a bell through the chamber. The blow whipped his father’s head aside and knocked him off the edge of the bed, to the floor.
Arin stepped back and shook his hand, flexing his fingers. The blow must haveburnedhim. I felt it too, felt its sting, and wanted more. “For mother, you selfish, rancid excuse for a husband, a father, a king.”
Hm, the Prince Behind the Door had teeth. He truly did know pain, and that made him a formidable ally, and a worthy enemy.
This was what I was here to uproot and nurture, sowing the seeds of discontent, pathing the way for Pain. A few weeks ago, I’d have taken everything I’d witnessed to Danyal. But now… now Arin’s secrets were mine, and watching him come alive like this, I’d gladly keep them for him.
Arin knelt and peered up into his father’s flushed, tear-stained face. “Compose yourself.” He straightened the man’s clothing, suddenly tender. “For now, you remain our king. Tonight, at dinner, you’ll announce your intent to abdicate. We’ll deal with the formalities after.”
“What will become of me?” Albus asked.
“Frankly, I do not care. Now get out of my chambers,Father.”
The king looked to me as though I might help him. I had, in the past, for a secret or a promise, but I couldn’t help with this. He stumbled toward Arin’s chamber door, mumbling and choking back sobs.
Arin had ruined his father in a matter of moments. But what his father missed, and I saw now, was how Arin’s face crumbled in pain. He hadn’t wanted to be like this. He still didn’t. But love was sometimes cruel. My unfeeling heart tripped behind the bars I’d placed around it. Arin… He staggered, reached for the bed, needing it to hold him up. I almost ran to him, almost betrayed my own weakness. Wouldn’t it be ironic if the only heart that loved in this rotten Court of Love was mine?
Arin glanced over, and a small, bruised smile wiped the pain from his face. “Father?” he called, catching the king as he dallied in the doorway. “Who are the unannounced guests?”
“The guests, the guests?” Albus wiped his face and smoothed down his clothes. “Oh yes.” The king cleared his throat. “Prince Razak,” he said. “From the Court of Pain.”
CHAPTER14
Arin
Lark’s faceturned to ice. He’d been smiling. Not in his brash, look-at-me, entertainer’s way, but in the small, secret way that was far more honest than the rest of him. But at the sound of Razak’s name, his smile froze on his lips, and all the soft warmth I’d discovered in him drained from his face. Fear widened his eyes. I almost reached for him, but everything we’d shared while lovemaking vanished now as Lark fled out of the door.
I hurried after him, pushing past my wretched father.
“Wait…Lark?” The corridor was empty.
“That man is made of trickery and spite,” my father grumbled. “He tried to bribe me—”
I spun on my father and almost struck him again. “Then do not give him the fuel with which to burn you.”
He blinked and nodded, backing down. “Why did you demand I have him arrested if you knew your mother had… knew what she’d done to herself? If you knew the jester had nothing to do with it?”
A lie. I had to think of one. I couldn’t tell him I’d arrested Lark because I was trying to make Lark believe I was thevicious prince, to further use Lark’s secrets against the Court of Pain. Father was beyond knowing the intricate moves of this dance Lark and I were trapped in. “Because I wanted to punish someone, anyone.” And I’d despised every blow he’d been dealt.
