Page 98 of A Sword of Ice
“Prince Valerio…”
The Seelie Prince was facing away from Iona, the dark ends of his hair tugging against the breeze. His hands were clasped tightly behind his back, his posture was rigid straight, and he was staring off into the afternoon sky. Iona couldn’t see it, but she imagined his expression to be quite pensive.
He didn’t reply.
She cleared her throat. “Prince Valerio,” she repeated.
After she apologized to Shula, she’d apologized to Ryker, who’d merely grunted and rolled his eyes as if to say the apology wasn’t necessary. Iona had saved the prince for last. This was by far the hardest apology she’d ever have to make in her life, she thought. She was already nervous, and Prince Valerio didn’t even turn to face her.
“Prince Valerio, I came to apologize.”
She could make out his elongated ears twitching slightly. They weren’t obscured by hair, as the sides of his head were shaved to show off his pale skin. It made him look less like a prince and more like a dangerous mercenary, though she would never say that aloud because he was stillprincely.He reeked of command and power. She’d taken advantage of that, had intentionally exploited his weaknesses and obvious insecurities to get him to go along with her plan.
“I manipulated you and disobeyed direct orders and put the whole group in jeopardy. I am sorry, my prince.”
He didn’t respond and Iona didn’t think he was going to. She was prepared to make a hasty retreat in shame when he angled his body towards her, regarding her with a curious expression and the slightest touch of a smile.
The smile unnerved her the most. If only because it wasn’t a happy expression. Not really. It was something else. Not traced with malevolence, but different.
“I have been thinking about everything you said,” he began. “Regarding the Fae, the war, and my duties as prince…”
She swallowed past the fear that was slowly building up her throat. “I misspoke…”
“Did you?” He pursed his lips, tilted his head. Every movement seemed almost deliberate and breathed of a great power she knew he wielded.
“I am no one to question you.” She never would have before the war. But she’d been so lost in her desire to find her sister that she’d forgotten he was royalty and treated him like just another commoner.
“Do not apologize for being right, Iona.”
She blinked, sure she’d misheard.
“The truth is you have given me so much to think about regarding my position as prince. Do you want to know what conclusion I came to?”
“What’s that?”
He smirked. “That I have failed you all.”
* * *
It hurt to admit,but the words came out of him regardless. For a moment, he was glad he’d sent Uric away. If only so he could have this moment with Iona in peace, without him hovering and glaring and scoffing at words that were true. Even if Uric could never stomach the admittance.
He could speak freely without him here, in a way that would make Iona understand.
The truth was, she had given him much to ponder. Like his life, his role as Prince of the Seelie Court, a court that has long since disbanded, the remains of it hovering within a broken castle in cold mountains. Waiting to be grand again.
Valerio did not feel like a royal anymore. At one point, he had relished in that life. But things had changed, and he was not as obsessive as his father about gaining back the riches they’d lost.
He realized what his father was doing. He was sending Valerio on a chase for the Elementals because having them on the side of the Fae would solve his problems quickly and easily. But if there was one thing Valerio knew, it was that nothing worth winning was ever quick and easy.
How could he call himself a leader of the Fae if he disregarded their suffering? Yes, he saved them. Helped them travel from camp to camp, only to shove them into the freezing walls of Castle Aileach and never hear from them again. That was not what a leader did. A leader stood up for his people. A leader freed his people from the tight grips of tyranny.
He was no better than his father. Following orders blindly to get to Elemental Fae just so they could join together and create a faster solution. Even if they found them, how would they even go about changing things?
War was inevitable.
And to go to war with the humans, the Fae needed numbers. Numbers they did not have.
“Prince Valerio…”
