Bonded

Chapter Forty Four

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India

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That was the first time I have ever seen Prince Emrys so up close and in person instead of just gazing at him in the graceful somber portraits scattered amongst the walls of the obsidian palace... And I daresay that I was not fully prepared to deal with how accurate the portraits had been...

Not just with his beauty... His handsome chiseled jaw nothing short of the living work of the divine artist... But with the way the air seems to turn sad all around him... And the loneliness that seems to seep from each and every one of his pores...

It was as if I was looking at a living poem, the branches of each line twisted our future ruler tighter and tighter as he tries not to allow himself to taint the rest of us with his pronounced and open sorrow... The words "How sad..." leaving my lips before I have the chance to ever catch them... The way the rest of our little grouping stares at me making me feel as though maybe they understand what I mean... And that they feel terrible about it too...

I feel as though if I am not careful that I may end up shedding tears over a royal who most likely will not ever even speak to me again, much less even remember that he did so today out of chance...And I feel as if my soul is not quite ready to release my sudden stress and tears when I do not think the others with me feel as affected as I do... The strange way that I feel over Prince Emrys's sorrow is so very striking to me in a way that I cannot fully begin to understand...

Before I have more of a chance to doubt myself though... I find myself wrapped in the arms of my suitors and Jian... All of us clinging to each other for comfort for a few moments so that we can each move through the strange set of emotions that have settled in the air... Our day today seemingly so charged without anyone's actual permission to be so...

None of us summoned this strange thickness that seems to cause me to want to cough... But all of us seem to feel it and I know that I am indeed safe to shed tears if I need to... They will spill into the shoulders of my future husbands and the closest friend I think I have ever had... And not one of them would dream of shaming me for it...