Page 55 of War of Her Heart

Because red roses weren’t enough. No, they weren’t the rightshadeof red.

Neither were tulips, daisies, or peonies.

I had expressed to her time and time again that I didn’t care about any of the details. That she should do all of this herself, but she refused. I spent every waking moment being pulled around by her, making wedding plans.

The only relief I got from her was after she went to bed. She’d tried multiple times to stay in my room, but I’d been adamant that we needed to save one thing until we were married.

And the moment I got away from her, I used to go straight to Violet. Lately though, her questions had been keeping me away.

I’d never been good at expressing my emotions, and everything I seemed to say to her lately just made it worse. Maybe it was the change of realms or something in the air, but Violet had never questioned me the way she was now.

I didn’t have all of the answers that she wanted. I wasn’t sure what our future would look like, but I knew one thing for sure: I couldn’t lose her.

Have you seen anything?I asked Alastor through the tether that linked me to him.

He shook his head slightly, giving me the answer I didn’t want.

Because Nathara was so clingy, it had become more difficult to find time myself to search for the object that was weakening the shadow king’s power. While I was busy playing the doting fiancé, helping Nathara plan the wedding, Alastor would slip out and roam the castle, watching for anyone acting oddly.

I dreaded dinners, and they always came too quickly, just like this dinner did tonight. It was one thing to have to pretend like I didn’t care about Violet when she wasn’t around. I could play the part of the loving fiancé to Nathara, and if Violet crossed my mind, that was okay because I had a stone wall built around my thoughts. I could look at Nathara, hold her in my arms, kiss her when I had to, and the entire time I could think about Violet and no one would know.

But to be in the same room with her, where I had to act like she didn’t exist, where I couldn’t look at her for more than a second without worrying it would raise suspicion, it was hell.

I could smell her. I could hear her breathing. And yet I couldn’t touch her.

I knew every time Nathara caressed my neck or placed her hand on my thigh, Violet was watching. It hurt her, but it was necessary.

While the servants began placing plates in front of us, Sebastian caught my eye.

I didn’t like the way he looked at her. I could only imagine the vile things that monster was thinking of doing to my Violet.

Before Violet got here, he would spend meals staring out the window and not saying a word unless Bronwen or Adar said something to him first. And he would only give them one-word answers, still with his eyes locked on the window.

Now, he looked at her. He said little things about her that a stranger shouldn’t say. I knew Violet had been around him that night at the bar, but that was the only time, I thought.

I glanced over to Violet to see she was holding his stare, not in an affectionate or even fearful way, but almost like a challenge. A challenge to see who was going to look away first. I looked back at Sebastian to see a smile stretch across his face.

I had never seen him smile.

He realized what he did because he broke her stare and went back to staring at the window.

I’d never seen Violet be this way in front of others. She’d always been confident and outgoing around me. But with others, she would shut down and become everything a Mountain Realm lady should be. I liked it that way. That way only I saw a different side of her and others saw how she was supposed to act.

But this side of her was something completely in and of itself, and I didn’t know where it had come from. I knew shehad been spending a lot of time with Bronwen, and she had probably rubbed off on her. Bronwen had enough confidence and personality for a thousand ladies. But for her to be that way to him. To the shadow king . . .

Something was up.

My avoiding her might have pushed her further into the mess she may have gotten herself into.

When I was finally able to get away from Nathara that night after hours of telling her I was ready for bed, I transferred into Violet’s room. She was already fast asleep.

So beautiful. So peaceful.

She had kicked the blanket off of her. She ran so hot at night. I’d wake up some nights to her drenched in sweat which in turn had me sweating from the heat radiating off of her. She used to argue with me that I was the reason she got so hot at night, but I never had a problem when I was in bed by myself.

I hated to wake her up, but I needed to make things right between us, and I needed her.

Her skin glistened from the moonlight, reflecting off of her sweaty chest. Her nightgown was pulled down, showing the top of her breasts, and it stuck to her skin.

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