Page 26 of Splintered Shadow
“Sure. That’s fair,” she said. Anything to keep him talking. She learned more about Vekele and the karu in the last few minutes than she had in days.
“Do you have a mate?” He moved his piece along the board. Everything in his body language said he couldn’t be bothered about her answer, but his eyes watched her carefully.
“Mate like friend or mate like spouse?”
“Do not be evasive.”
“Hey, I’m asking for clarification. I wasn’t married, but I was engaged. He died.” She paused, expecting pain to make her voice quiver, but the pain never came.
Vekele watched her, not bothering to hide the way his gaze swept over her. He seemed… hungry. He did not offer any platitudes or condolences, which she appreciated.
Sarah had grown so numb to people being sorry for her loss that resentment flared in her chest when she heard the words. Herloss, like a whole damn person could be boiled down to something so trivial. Robert hadn’t been a lost trinket, and she wasn’t a little sad. Her fucking heart had been cut out, and now she was some undead creature wandering through a half-life without a heart.
She blinked back tears.
Dammit.
“You are upset,” Vekele said.
“The prince of observation,” she muttered.
“I will leave.” He gathered up the game pieces.
“No. Stay,” she said hurriedly. She couldn’t bear to sit alone in the room again. “Stay, please. I’m not upset.”
“You are weeping.”
Sarah wiped her eyes with the cuff of the blouse. Instinct wanted to say it was complicated and ignore the subject, but she had a feeling that Vekele wouldn’t let the subject go so easily.
Gotta face it head -on.
“We’ve got a saying that time heals all wounds,” she said. “But no one mentions that you’re not the same. You’ve got scar tissue, and mostly you forget about it, but sometimes it hurts.”
He nodded. “That is an astute observation.”
Now that she was talking about Robert, actually talking and not pretending that everything was fine, she couldn’t stop. “He died in his sleep. A brain aneurysm. The doctors said there was a weak area in a blood vessel, and it was bound to happen. Nothing anyone could do about it.”
“Human brains do that? That is a defective design.”
“It’s not a defect. Robert wasn’t defective,” she snapped.
His brows rose in surprise.
Needing a few moments to collect herself, she sipped her glass of water. Once drained, the glass thumped on the table. She said, “He made me laugh. He was caring and kind. He was my friend, and I love him. Loved him.”
Vekele refilled the glass. “Now you are angry with me and no longer weeping. Good,” he said in a pleased tone.
That smug bastard.
“How about you? Do you have a mate?” Let’s see how he liked it when the tables were turned.
“No. I am a prince. My mate will be whoever the king selects.”
That seemed cold. “What if you don’t love them?” she asked.
“My feelings in the matter are irrelevant. I must think of the crown. My duty is clear,” he said.
Despite the firmness in his tone, she heard a longing in his voice that called to her.
