Page 139 of A Sword of Ice
So why did it feel like things within his mind had stood still?
“My prince, we must leave.” The voice felt far away, but he would recognize it anywhere. The way it scratched against his throat like speaking hurt because of the toll of his magic.
Uric.
But not even his friend could break him out of his reverie. He took a staggering step forward, his whole world imploding in on itself. His father, a man he had hated his whole life, a man who probably had his own wife murdered, was dying.
And Valerio did not want him to.
“My father.” He stepped forward. “I have to go to him.” He found his path suddenly blocked, firm hands gripping him. He blinked and made out Weylyn’s features.
“The king said we must leave.”
Valerio stepped back from him and turned in a circle, looking for another way out. A way to find his father, to help him. He could not die, because the Resistance needed him. And, despite his hatred, despite anything else, Valerio needed him, too. He was not ready to face what was out there in a world without the King of Seelie. It meant ascension, and Valerio had proved before that he was not ready for such a task.
He took a step, and another, and another.
Then Uric was in front of him, blocking the way while he opened a portal at his side.
Valerio eyed it warily. “I am not going.”
“My prince…”
Another crash, another boom.
“They’re getting closer! We have to go, now!” Julius ushered his mate and her familiar through the portal. Ryker and Shula followed at a much slower pace, and still Valerio could not bring himself to move.
“We have to leave.” There was an urgency to the rasp in Uric’s voice, but the prince did not want to acknowledge it. He did not want to acknowledge anything beyond his own panic, his own hurt. He pushed at his friend’s frail soldiers.
“Get out of my way.”
He was surprisingly steady for a Fae who looked ready to keel over from his age and did not so much as budge. Valerio pushed him again.
“I have to save my father. I have to!” The hysteria in his voice rose. His eyes burned. His gut clenched. His fingers danced towards the sword at his side and unsheathed it, placing the tip against his friend’s throat. “As your prince, I order you to step the fuck away and let me go to my father.”
He saw the sadness reflected in Uric’s eyes off the steel blade. He did not move, but he did place his gnarled fingers against Valerio’s shoulders.
The compassion in his gaze nearly gutted the prince.
“Kill me if you must,” he whispered, his throat bobbing against the tip of the blade. “But I will not watch you run to your death. My only job is protecting you with my life. If you wish to take that away, then so be it.”
Valerio lowered the sword a fraction, his heart splintering, his mind a mess he did not understand.
“It is time to go,” Weylyn said.
And before Valerio could protest, his arms were grabbed from both sides and he was being shoved into the portal.
Leaving his people, his father—the fallen king—behind.
54
King Regent
Valerio’s knees hit the grass on the other side of the portal. He fell from the tight grace he usually kept himself trapped in, forehead kissing the earth, nails digging into the dirt. He did not scream or cry out, but his emotions felt like a storm roiling across the horizon.
Something they could all see coming but weren’t exactly sure when it would hit. The grief, the anger, and everything else that accompanied a loss.
Iona should have known better to expect such a thing from someone as tightly composed as him. Not a moment later, he pushed himself to a standing position, his hard mask in place, his jaw tight, his hands clenched into fists.
