Page 160 of The Kingdom's Reckoning
She wiped her slick palms on the long slip Phaia had let her borrow, then pulled her sweater tighter around her torso before following Rian.
When Myra entered, he barely glanced at her. Instead, he held out a hand toward the couch. "Sit."
With a curt nod, Myra scurried over to the couch and sat. She folded her hands in her lap, twisting her fingers.
Instinctively, she reached out. Apprehension, fear, and anger dripped from Rian’s pores.
Rian ran a hand over his hair. The dye had faded marginally, turning his hair into a dark burgundy shade. "You risk your safety staying in that room with him."
A knuckle cracked, and she shook the sting from her hand. "He’s not a danger. He’s still him," she argued.
Rian halted his pacing, and his hands fell to his sides in tight fists. "We do not know that."
"He hasn’t hurt any of us since he woke up." If Laurince couldn’t stand up for himself, she would do it for him.
"Yet," Rian bit out.
The word twisted in her gut uncomfortably.
"See!" he spat, waving his hand at her. "Even you and your hopeful optimism cannot deny that. There is too much we do not know about the effects of the serum. It would be unwise of us not to consider the potential side effects. You were there when he woke up the first time. He moved through the room like a tornado. We’re lucky he didn’t find those knives first and stab one of us."
"He wouldn’t have done that!"
"Hecouldhave," Rian countered. "And that is precisely my point. He is stronger than all of us combined."
Myra bit the inside of her cheek.
Was this why Rian wished to talk to her? To berate her and her choices? It wasn’t Laurince’s fault that he had been subjected to the poison.
Myra lifted her chin. Rian might have been a king, but she was done cowering at the feet of royals. "He needs support. He needs to know we are here for him."
Rian sneered. "And what do you know of his needs, hmm? It was only a week or so ago when you deniedyour feelings for him."
Myra’s lips parted, her voice catching in her throat. Where was this anger coming from? This was not the Rian she had come to know.
"Our relationship, as new as it may be, is none of your business, Your Highness," she hissed. "He is my friend, too. Have you seen how scared he is? Have youfelthis fear? His anxiety? His rage?"
Rian’s lips formed a flat line.
"No?" Myra asked, struggling to keep her voice quiet lest she wake Phaia and Laurince. "Well, I have. He is scared and frightened—more than you can even imagine. And right now, what he needs the most is not to feel alone. If that puts my life at risk, then so be it! But it is my risk to take, not yours to deny."
Rian curled his hands tighter, and his body seemed to tremble.
"If the roles were reversed," Myra pressed, "Laurince would be right by your side, doing the same thing I am."
Rian groaned and collapsed into the chair behind him. Myra froze as his head fell into his hands. His shoulders shook as regret and remorse weighed heavily on him.
After a moment, he cleared his throat and swatted at the fresh tears. "Laurince has always been a better man than I. He would jump in front of an arrow for me. It’s what makes him such an excellent captain. But…" He ran a hand across his head. "He’s so much more to me than that. He’s been more of a brother to me than my own flesh and blood. I’m scared and I…I don’t know how to help him."
Myra leaned forward, her hands resting on her knees. "We’re all scared, Rian."
"After the way things went at the trial, I don’t even know if I have a title anymore. If I did...If had access to the castle, I could have the best healers observing him, searching for a way to reverse the serum."
"Perhaps instead of thinking about how to reverse the serum, we should put our energy into being there for him? We don’t know if there is a cure, and right now, that doubt only makes it worse. Laurince needs to know that no matter what happens, we will be there for him."
Rian pressed the heels of his hands against his eye sockets and nodded. He exhaled a shaky breath.
"Was this…was this what you wished to talk to me about?"
