Page 17 of Queen of the Crimson Throne

“Will you promise me something?” I asked.

“Anything, what do you need?”

“Promise me you’ll keep an eye on her. That you’ll be there for her since I can’t.”

“Luka, you can be there?—”

“No.” I cut him off. “I can’t be there for her.” No matter how badly I wanted to, I couldn’t. “I hurt her more by being there. But she needs someone. She needs you. Please, Nico.”

Before today, I had hoped I’d be able to be there for her, but after her reaction to seeing me?—

“Of course. I’ve got her.”

“Thanks.” The word came out strained.

“I’ve got you too, Luka.” He patted a hand on my back. “Dec and I both, we’ve got you too. Don’t forget that.”

I stared at my palms as Nico stood. “You should get some sleep.” He made his way toward the door.

There wasn’t time for sleep. Not when I had a time limit as to when I needed to find Astria’s spellbook. Soon my grandfather would set a wedding date. Any day now there would be a permanent time constraint on what I needed to accomplish. Sleep would come later.

After I found Lennox a way out of our marriage.

“I’m leaving for Maderia in the morning,” I called out to Nico. I’ll be gone a couple weeks. I need you to continue to check the market while I’m gone, in case the Scribe comes while I’m away.”

The muscles in Nico’s back tensed as he stood in front of the door. He didn’t turn as he spoke. “When are you going to stop punishing yourself?”

I shook my head. “What do you mean?”

“You’ve been waiting weeks for her to arrive and the day after she does you’re going to take off?”

“She doesn’t want to see me. What do you expect me to do? Sit here and mope around like a lost animal until she’s ready to talk to me? Because I won’t. She said she needs time, so I’ll give her time.”

Nico was quiet, I knew he was holding back what he wanted to say.

Finally, he spoke, “I’ll look after her. Safe travels.”

“Thank you.”

Maybe I was punishing myself by leaving so soon after her arrival. I wanted to be here with her. I wanted to be the one looking out for her. But I know she doesn’t want me here. If anything, staying here would be a worse punishment. Being here and seeing her and not being able to have her: that might be the worst punishment of all.

9

LENNOX

I had to give it to Luka, I didn’t anticipate he’d go to such lengths to avoid me. The morning after my arrival when Krissa delivered my breakfast she had a note from Luka for me. The letter was short and to the point. He had business to attend to out of town, he would be back in a week or two. I was surprised after our conversation the night before. Well, conversation was a stretch, after he talked to me through the door, I thought he’d constantly try to get me to talk to him, to figure things out. I didn’t expect he’d leave so abruptly. It made things easy for me at least. All of the planning for our engagement ball was left to me. Not that I liked planning balls, but I was glad at least I didn’t have to do it with Luka by my side and pretend everything was fine between us.

And it gave me time to mull over King Arlo’s proposition.

He hadn’t had time to meet with me again, but he had sent word promising we would soon. He wanted me to spend some time with Luka first and figure out how I might go about things. He seemed as surprised by Luka’s last-minute trip as I was.

I spent my mornings training, before taking various meetings in the afternoons. Some days it was ball prep,other days I met with various members of the Blood Court. Although my trip here was for mine and Luka’s engagement party, I was using it as a political trip as well. If I was going to spend time in the Blood Court I was going to make connections. If I was going to be tied to this court I wanted to know everything. I had expected to get pushback but was met with little. Most were eager to accept my invitations. During my evenings I surveyed the libraries, scouring over books detailing the history of the Blood Court. Some days Nico pulled me from the library and forced me to have dinner with him. Occasionally, Declan joined us, but it felt weird when it was the three of us. The lack of a specific person was felt more when it was the three of us. It wasn’t as present when it was only me and Nico.

I hoped the arrival of Kara today would help ease that strain. Although with how things had been between Kara and I before I left, I doubted her arrival would ease any tensions. It would be a lot harder to avoid her here.

Last night when Nico had brought up Kara’s impending arrival he assumed I would be excited. Declan and I shared a strained look that confused Nico even further. Instead of explaining I promptly left.

I’m sure Declan filled him in after.

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