Evander
I have the urge to yank Kenna into a sitting room, or a closet, or a fucking darkened hallway the second my feet hit the ground in Moonrise.
I can’t, though. Not when our mothers are barreling toward us, and their faces are drawn with so much worry that it could easily break my heart, if I still had a heart to break.
I let go of Kenna’s hand and feel the absence of her touch like another blade in my side.
But my mom throws herself against me and sobs.
I slowly wrap my arms around her, resting my chin on the top of her head. The throne room takes shape all around me–the soft cream curtains, the murals on the walls and the ceiling, the windows overlooking the lake.
Queen Ella is clutching Kenna’s face between her hands, and Kenna is in tears.
Seeing them together–seeing Kenna home–it’s enough for me to finally feel like I can breathe again.
“You asshole!” Mom shouts, smacking me hard on the chest.
I grunt in surprise and pain, glaring down at her and grabbing her wrist before she can do it again.
“Mom–”
“I told you–I told you so many times not to–I never wanted you in the Ghosts. I never wanted you to be a warrior, and you nearly got yourself killed, again!”
“Amanda,” Dad says gently, tugging her away. “Give the kid a break for a moment.”
“You encouraged this,” she hisses, yanking her arm out of his grasp.
“Amanda–”
She glares at both of us and turns on her heel, stalking away and cutting around a corner.
Dad meets my eyes as he exhales, “This is between me and her. She’s fine, and she still loves you.”
“I wasn’t worried–”
Dad walks off after her, leaving me alone in the throne room with Kenna and her parents.
My gaze slides to Ryatt, and I find him looking right at me. He tilts his head in a motion to follow.
I have to follow him. He’s the Alpha King.
But for a moment too long, my feet stay planted in place, and I make the mistake of glancing at Kenna.
“You’ve done your duty, Evander. My daughter is safe. Come.”
Kenna looks at me, her eyes red and lined with tears.
I shouldn’t say anything to her at all. She deserves so much more than this. Explaining myself isn’t going to cut it, not now.
But, I tell her, “Our usual spot, tonight. I’ll find you.”
“Evander,” King Ryatt growls, his eyes hard and the color of pure steel. “Now.” He turns on his heel and walks away, and I follow, keeping a good distance between us.
I can hear Ella and Kenna murmuring to each other, but their words are lost in the echo of my footsteps as I follow Ryatt to his office. How many times have I walked these same halls to go to this very location? I was raised here. My parents have their own wing of the enormous castle. I used to get yelled at by the maids for riding my bike down this very corridor and using the upcoming stairs as a jump.
Kenna and I used to sneak into Ryatt’s office to steal candy from a jar on his desk.
Now, I’m sitting across from him while he stares me down.
“What, exactly, did Kenna do in that forest?”
“Agent Flynn and Agent Connor accurately recounted–”
“I need to hear it from you.”
My nostrils flare as I exhale, meeting his gaze. “Everything. She used every power she has, somehow converging them into one.”
“Did she shift?”
“I don’t know. I saw the beginning of it; she killed the first rebel using wolfsbane berries. I–” I have to catch my breath as the memory steals the air from my lungs. I lick my lips and see Ryatt as a father instead of an Alpha King for a moment.
A father who is asking me, Kenna’s oldest, and maybe even dearest friend, how she handled taking a life for the first time.
“I blacked out,” I admit. “Momentarily. When I came to, she was… she was a shadow walking inside a wall of pure fire, and those shadows… they were everywhere. She cut every single rebel down. Connor and Flynn retreated back to me and tried to keep me calm because I… if I could have, I would have stopped her. I would have stopped her from going on a rampage….”
She did it because someone hurt me. I don’t know if I can live with that.
“I failed, Your Highness.”
“You didn’t.”
“I failed to protect her. My guard was down. I let her out of my sight, and when I found her again, it was too late. I didn’t sense them in the area. I would have laid down my own life rather than allow her to stain her hands with blood, and I am sorry.”
Ryatt rests his hands on the table and levels a look at me. “Evander, you’ve been relieved of your duties in my army. You are now a Beta. Once the Rite is over, you will follow Kenna to Veiled Valley and rule beside her. You have no obligation to me as my subject any longer.”
“I made a vow to protect her and failed to do so.”
“You were seven years old when you made that vow. I didn’t realize how seriously you’d take it.”
I stiffen. He holds my gaze.
“Your mother will kill me in my sleep one day, I’m sure of it, and Ella will probably let her. I never meant for you to take it this far–”
“Joining the Ghosts was my decision–”
“It also separated you from Kenna.”
I stand, my fingertips prickling with adrenaline. “What is this conversation really about? Are you here to interrogate me about what happened in that forest, or is there something else you want to know?”
He leans back in his chair. “Is there something you’d like to tell me?”
I’ve already done enough damage. I cannot, and will not, tell Kenna’s father that I am her mate.
That will be up to her in the event she doesn’t reject me, because at this point, I’m not sure I have it in me to try to reject her again.
“Kenna is a pacifist. She always has been and likely always will be. I have spent the last two decades making sure her future reign is one of peace, and not bloodshed. As long as my wife and I are the King and Queen of Eastonia, we will work to ensure her life is easier than ours was. Kenna has never been in a position to do what she just did. She has barely trained those powers past the point of being able to control them. What she did in that forest is something even I can’t do, Evander. Do you understand what I’m trying to say?”
My chest heaves as I take a breath.
Ryatt clenches his jaw, rapping his knuckles on his desk. “She has never lifted a finger toward anyone with ill intent. Why now?” He eyes me coolly, inspecting my face. “Why, I wonder, would she rain hellfire on an army with dozens of men poised to strike if she were safe in the hands of the Ghosts? Your fellow agents could have gotten her out of there.”
His eyes are locked on mine.
“It’s because someone hurt you, right?”
I shake my head, but he’s nodding.
“I’m going to ask you again. Do you have anything to tell me?”
“No.”
He taps his fingers on his desk. “Then, I see no reason for you not to perform the ritual.”
He could have punched me in the gut and it would have had the same effect.
I bow and back out of the room. He watches every step I take, and his gaze bores into my back when I finally turn around.
A male servant shuts his office door, and the silence in the corridor is deafening.
But Kenna’s scent is thick in the air. I turn, my gaze sweeping over the walls for any hint of her shadow.
I don’t see her. It could just be the fact that I’m here, in the castle, for the first time in years that has me on edge and unable to focus. Her scent is everywhere. This is her home. But she could very well be eavesdropping.
‘I didn’t tell him anything,’ I say to her over the mind-link… over our bond, and walk off to find my parents.
* * *
Kenna
I’ve avoided this place for years.
Vines hang from the trees we used to climb as children. The old fountain is still cracked and in shambles, and the forest surrounding Moonrise has taken over our old stomping ground. Moss hugs the fountain and the mosaic tiles that surround it, and little blue flowers bloom across the shaded clearing, blocking out the first glimpses of moonlight stretching through the canopy of weeping willows as I step inside the sanctuary of their branches.
Evander isn’t here yet. I’m not sure when he’ll arrive.
I sit on one of the boulders surrounding the tree trunk and cross my ankles before running my fingers through my wet, freshly washed hair.
I spent the entire evening with my mom. I told her everything–almost everything. I couldn’t bring myself to tell her the truth about Evander, though. She told me to meet up with my friends tomorrow, to talk to Avery and Sophie about my time in Crescent Falls. My two best friends and fellow witches have been curious about my time across the border.
I never told them about my feelings for Evander, though. Not once in the decade or so I’ve been friends with them. He was always just… the kid I grew up with. The Beta’s son. The warrior I wrote letters to.
Now, so much has changed.
I look up as Evander walks through the willow branches, pushing them to the side. The lazy, wispy branches fall back into place behind him, closing us in together.
This is the first time in days we’ve been truly alone.
There's so much to say, and I don’t know where to start.
I stand, breaking out in a cold sweat as I wring my hands together.
He’s looking at me with an intensity that could bring me to my knees, but I hold steady.
I swallow, then say, “Reject me, if you have to. I doubt I’ll feel it. But I can’t–if you don’t want this, I think I understand now.” I take a step toward him, dropping my hands to my sides. “I have everything in the world. I’ve never wanted or needed for anything. I’ve never had to fight to protect what I love and cherish, so I didn’t know… I didn’t understand how much that meant until I… until I killed all of those people yesterday.”
His jaw flexes as I move closer.
“I’ve never been on an adventure like that before,” I whisper. “Out in the woods, sitting around campfires and exploring…. I understand why you don’t want to give that up to live in a castle and do paperwork and boss people around–”
“It was never about that, Kenna.”
“But it was, wasn’t it? Do you remember playing here, Evander? Under this very tree? We used to pretend we were mates, and you’d leave to go off to war, and to go hunting, and I’d stay. I’d stay with my dolls, and I’d write you letters. You were never here, and I never went with you. I was happy under this tree, in Moonrise, pretending to be the queen while you… left. I understand now. We might be mates, but this isn’t the life you wanted.”
He shakes his head. “No, Kenna.”
“Then why did you leave?”
I’m standing right in front of him in another step. There’s hardly any distance between us. I can feel his warmth. I can almost taste the remnants of the wolfsbane in his body, the poison that’s now blurring his scent.
I close my eyes as he reaches up and cups my cheek.
I feel the truth in my heart before he can voice it. I know this isn’t what he wants. He wants me, in some shape or form, for sure. Our heated kisses tell me as much.
But there’s something greater holding him back.
And it’s holding me back from finding actual happiness and giving him the freedom he deserves.
I step away from him.
“I hereby relieve you of your duties as my Beta.”
Evander blinks, then cocks his head. “Kenna?”
“I–I reject you–”
“Stop.”