Page 63 of Her Dark Promise

I turned when he asked, “May I ask you something?”

I dropped my head slightly, unsure if I had the strength, but then nodded and turned back to him.

“What is it about Bastian?”

“There is something about him that is hidden from us. Something that he is keeping a secret even from himself. Why do you ask?”

“For many years, it has just been the three of us, and while I hate to admit it, I am a bit jealous. But my love for you is not fickle. If you wish to take another, I will continue to stand by you. Join you even.”

“Oh?”

“I’ve thought about it,” he admitted. “It’s been on my mind…and you are always so honest with what you want. Why shouldn’t I be?”

He was pouring his heart out to me.

With a sigh, he continued, “Does Bastian mean something to you? If so, then I will do everything in my power to help him transition into his new life.”

Does hemeansomething to me?

“I don’t know what he is to me. I am just as tempted to kill him as I am to fuck him. Eventually, we will both understand each other, but until we do, things will be tense.”

“And Soren?”

I grinned at the thought of him.

“I think he’ll be happy with the library for the next fifty years.”

Callum laughed at the thought.

“He’s different. His mind works so frantically, but there is some brilliance in it, I suppose. He never stops talking about his travels, either.”

“We will never bore between the two.” I paused and blinked slowly. “What happened with the chair… What I said…”

“I haven’t the faintest idea what you’re talking about, your grace.”

My chest warmed, and for a moment, with the memory of Belle so fresh, I let myself give him a weak smile.

I left him to gaze at the sights some more as I went to go see a few of my own.

I entered Soren’s chambers, considering his travels more seriously. He was lying back against his headboard, reading a book next to the flickering flames of candlelight.

He sat up in the bed and put the book next to him. “Your majesty?”

I reached the bed, lifted my dress to my knees, and crawled over to him.

“What—What are you doing?”

I placed my hands on either side of his head and commanded, “I do not wish to go searching through your memories. I do not have the patience. So, I need you to think hard about your favorite place that you have traveled to.”

I gave him just less than a minute to think before diving in. It took a moment to truly understand what it was that I was seeing.

The sound hit me first, a sound that I had never heard, and I didn’t have the vocabulary to accurately describe. But it was loud. Booming.

I was standing next to Soren on a wide expanse of what I could only imagine was sand. An enormous amount of hard sand squished beneath my bare feet. I was blinded while trying to make direct eye contact with the water from the way in which the sun was hitting it.

I heard the loud booming sound again and looked to my right to find that there were cliffs on which the water was pounding. Slowly chiseling away at the landscape with how hard the water was crashing. Particles sprayed everywhere. I almost wanted to stand under its shower and taste it.

I saw movement next to me and turned back to find that Soren was wiping a single tear from his eye. I knew he agreed with me. This. This was the most beautiful view that I had ever seen in my entire life—no, existence.

---