Page 45 of Vows to a King
His hands shook as he ran them through his hair, every cell and sinew and bone in him purring with the need to go to her.
Abruptly, he shot to his feet just as Adamos, leaning heavily on a walking stick, walked into the room.
Shock pummeled Adonis at the sight of his older brother, his love for him a suffocating anvil on his chest.
His brother looked…wrecked. Inside out.
Dark bruises shone on his rugged face, each bigger and more colorful than the last. Then there were all the stitches for numerous cuts. One arm in a sling, his stride crooked, his hip bent, he looked like he’d barely survived the crash.
Only his dark eyes—as gray as the stormy sky Adonis had left behind in Thalassos, shone with a forceful intensity that Adonis remembered.
Reaching him, Adonis gingerly hugged his brother.
With a harsh laugh that didn’t sound quite normal, Adamos wrapped a thick, corded arm around his back. “I might look fragile. But I will not break, Adonis, if you squeeze me too tight.”
Fighting the sudden onslaught of prickling tears, Adonis pulled back. “I’ve come with the intention of taking you back to Thalassos. To give you your throne back.”
“Has that intention changed now?” Adamos asked, his thick brows tugging together. Ever the shrewd prince their father had molded him to be. And he knew his younger brother well.
“I have second thoughts now, yes,” Adonis said honestly.
Jemima’s words tickled at the back of his mind, like a song constantly unspooling wonder in him. So many things falling into place finally. All because she’d had the courage to speak the truth for him, to him.
You’re a king no matter who you were born to…
She had seen so clearly, so well. And in return, he hadn’t even acknowledged her admission.
Christos, he wasn’t just a coward but a cruel one at that…
“Also, I realized I should take your wishes into consideration,” Adonis said. He took a deep breath and searched for the right words. “I do not want anything that is rightfully yours, Adamos.”
“You think I don’t know that?” Adamos replied with an impatient huff. “Although it seems you have married the woman who should have been my queen.”
“She is mine,” Adonis said hotly.
Adamos, the cunning bastard, let out laughter that sounded like the boom of a cannon.
“The throne might be yours but you don’t deserve her.”
A flicker of shame danced in his brother’s eyes. “No. I never did.”
Adonis gave voice to the deepest desire he had hidden away. “But I will not leave Thalassos if you come back either. Until you recover fully, we can keep you and your condition under wraps. When you’re ready to take back the throne, I’ll help the transition and stay. Whatever role you give me, I’d like to continue to serve the crown and Thalassos to my best.”
“I’ve been awake only a few hours but Her Highness of Ephyra,” his brother said, a snappy anger touching his words at the mention of Queen Calista, “has made sure I understood all the things you’ve achieved already in three months.” His brother’s gray gaze pinned Adonis’s, as if they were still boys. As if it were he seeking protection now instead of the other way around. “It is clear, for all of our father’s ramblings, that you’re a far better king that I ever could be, Adonis. And I’m not sure if I have the right to ask this of you but…keep the throne, won’t you? And grant me freedom from the shackles of it.”
Adonis stared at his brother, shock suffusing every inch. “I don’t understand, Adamos.”
“I can’t explain now,” his brother said, massaging his right hip. Pain etched onto his features, distorting them with its cruel fingers. “I’m of no use to myself in my current condition, much less Thalassos. And even before the crash, I began to hate the palace and the crown for all that it stole from me. I…didn’t want it then, and I definitely don’t want it now, Adonis.”
“Is that why Mama summoned me?”
“Yes. She knows her sons well, it seems. She knew you would take up the mantle if I gave it up. She even told me you would make a better king than I ever could.”
“That’s not true,” Adonis said, even as his heart thrummed with joy at the conviction his mother showed him.
“She’s right,” Adamos said, without a flicker of doubt. “I know I have no right to ask this of you, but, Adonis, give me my life back. Even when I make myself known to the world again, there are any number of clauses that we can use to declare me incompetent for the crown.”
“I don’t understand,” Adonis began but Adamos cut him off.
