𝐎𝐍𝐋𝐘 𝐀𝐅𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐍𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓𝐅𝐀𝐋𝐋 | 𝟏𝟖+

𝐅𝐎𝐑𝐓𝐘-𝐅𝐈𝐕𝐄 | 𝐅𝐀𝐋𝐋 𝐓𝐎 𝐏𝐈𝐄𝐂𝐄𝐒

ততততত

𝐈 𝐌 𝐎 𝐆 𝐄 𝐍

I find my father in his private gardens, spending some needed quiet time with his beloved wife and son. He stands under the branches of Ruslan's cherry tree, surrounded by the white orchids that my mother used to adore.

My father lifts his gaze over to me, a weak smile perching his thin weathered lips. This situation between Lagulon and Adorid has aged him faster than I could imagine. The grey tinge in his once blonde hair becomes highlighted in the fading sunlight, and the wrinkles at the corner of his stormy eyes and forehead create the most wisened of crevasses.

"Duckling," he mutters as he swings an arm around me, swaddling me into his fatherly embrace. With the world turning faster and faster with every passing day, a hug from a man that's always been a foundation for me makes it stop for just a moment. "I was hoping you'd come out here."

"I figured I'd find you spending time with mom and Ruslan," I say, because despite their early stolen deaths, they're still anchors that ground our orbiting lives.

"I can still hear her voice in the silence," my father admits, brushing his fingertips atop my mother's stone. "She's looking down at me from the heavens and saying 'Orion, what the hell are you doing? How'd it come to this?'"

I tip my attention down to the name scrolled on my mother's gravestone: Adirya Navarro Mironescu. She's the one who kept my father in line when he felt like he should be falling. She was the wise one behind my father's reign, the one who had the answers to every problem that arose on Lagulon's turquoise coasts. They governed this land in perfect harmony.

Or so they thought.

Their kingdom forged from such helpless love fell to pieces the day we lost Ruslan, and then years later, my mother. Since then, we've been two wandering souls, father and daughter, in a desolate world that's out for our blood.

It's how we ended up in this blasted quarrel. In our search for peace, we had to make a sacrifice, and it's why my father bound me to Leighton in marriage, even if the marriage itself will be the death of me. Still, there's a part of me that holds on hope that Tobin—my petty, predictable, yet ridiculously charming thief—will find a way to rescue me from a king that will surely wring every living breath from my lungs.

"Have you and Lorcan figured anything out?" I ask, knowing the answer full well. "There's still no end to the betrothal, is there?"

My father's sigh tells me all I need too. It's the sound of a man burdened with more than I can fathom. I've asked for the past few months for him to end this madness, but he cares so deeply for his kingdom that he'll send his own daughter to a man who'll break every bone in me.

"I'm not sure there's anything in our power to persuade Leighton to reverse the betrothal. We've thrown every possibility out there, and he's rejected them all. He's quite determined to marry you, and I can't say he's been subtle about his intentions."

I swallow. Leighton has always tried to be amicable when it comes to what life will be like proceeding our marriage, but ever since my trip to Adorid and my visit within his bloodied courtyard of nightmares, I don't know what reality to expect. All I know is that he wants me to carry his bloodline, to be the queen who will birth his heirs.

The chances of Tobin succeeding at fulfilling his father's final wish is for me to inquire to my own father, the king, for help in a fight that might be a dead end.

I wring my fists into my dress, the question waiting at the tip of my tongue. "Remember a few months ago when I went to Adorid?"

My father winces. "You don't need to remind me of what I've done. I shouldn't have let you go to Adorid."