Page 19 of War of Her Heart

With no emotion at all I said, “And yet you have a garden of violets outside.”

“Violet noticed the violets? Strange coincidence maybe. They came to me in a dream,” he said as he smirked at me.

“You dream about flowers? The scary Sovereign of the Night Realm dreams about flowers?” I don’t know what I was doing pushing him like this, but it just came out before I even realized what I had said.

He bit his lip as he looked me up and down. “I sure do.”

Oh fuck. I’d been around Sebastian twice and both times he’d made me feel things I shouldn’t be feeling. I should be terrified of him. He’s a killer. He’s evil. He literally had shadows floating around him. But I was not scared, and I was so enticed by him that I just wanted to know more. I’d never spoken to a male the way I’d spoken to him. I knew the rules were different here—females had more freedom—but I didn’t understand where this confidence was coming from.

The sound of voices coming up the hall broke the trance I was in. Well, one voice in particular snapped me back to reality. Calum’s.

“Will you be joining us for breakfast today?” I asked, trying to keep myself distracted from who would be coming up the hall soon.

“Unfortunately, yes. Being such the ‘good Advisor’ that Bronwen is, sheadvisedme that I should,” he said, even though the tone of his voice made it seem like less of advice and more of a demand.

“Do you not normally have breakfast with your sister and mother?” I asked.

Sebastian’s face went cold and his eyes darkened as he said, “Lilian is not my mother.”

By the look on his face, I knew I’d said the wrong thing. The shadows around him started to grow and radiate from him, making him appear even more like the shadow king I had heard about.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t know,” I said.

He looked ahead, avoiding eye contact with me, and started taking deep breaths. It was like he was trying to calm himself down. “Breakfast will be served soon,” he said as he walked past me, and by the time I turned to follow him into the dining room, he was gone.

I heard Calum’s voice and what I assumed to be Nathara’s voice growing louder. I wanted to avoid an awkward moment in the hall with them, so I went into the dining room and quickly found a seat.

A few seconds later, Calum, Nathara, and my father came in and sat at the other end of the table. At least now I could avoid making eye contact with them and hopefully get through this meal as quickly as possible. If it wouldn’t have looked suspicious, I wouldn’t have come to breakfast at all.

“Calum, aren’t you going to introduce me?” Nathara asked. I looked up to see she had wrapped her hand around Calum’s arm and was tracing circles with her thumb.

“Of course, this is Violet, Alastor’s daughter,” he said with giving me nothing more than a quick glance.

Alastor’s daughter. The daughter of the Commander of the Mountain Realm. Nothing else.

“It’s nice to meet you, Nathara,” I said as I forced myself to smile.

Please someone else show up for breakfast.

She looked me up and down and gave me the fakest smile I’d ever seen back.

This was my hell.

Possibly the worst part of it all was Nathara’s beauty. Her hair was long, black, and straight; it had a certain shine to it that I envied. Her skin was pale, like Sebastian’s, but her eyes were black, like a Night Realm fae’s eyes should be. She was tall, slender, and graceful with every move she made. Her lips were painted red, a strong contrast to her pale features, and it took everything in me not to picture her lips on Calum.

It felt like forever before Bronwen and Adar arrived. Their presence eased the tension, and thankfully Bronwen sat next to me. I didn’t know if I could handle watching Adar roll his eyes through this meal.

She looked at the empty seat at the head of the table and let out a loud huff. “Itoldhim to come to breakfast.”

I guess I could be to blame for his lack of attendance.

Celine and a female I’d yet to see arrived last. They were giggling and whispering to each other. The fact that Celine was allowing this lady to be so close to her told me that she must be Lilian, Nathara’s mother—but not Sebastian’s.

Lilian looked exactly like Nathara except for her auburn red hair and dark blue eyes. Her features were a dead giveaway that she was from the Forest Realm.

Breakfast was horrible. Nathara was practically sitting in Calum’s lap the entire meal, and he would nuzzle his noseinto her neck while she giggled. I had to pretend like it didn’t bother me even though I was screaming on the inside. I had to find something else to focus on before I exploded and that was Sebastian.

I struck a nerve when I thought Lilian was his mother. How could I have known she wasn’t? Fae stay with their spouses until death, which meant Sebastian’s mother was dead. I wanted to know what happened. Not because I cared, but because I loved knowing everything. Since my entire childhood was focused on schooling, I was always learning something new, and it was a habit that just stuck.

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