Page 2 of Detonation
She shakes her head, her smile spreading to show her pearly white teeth. “No one could ever take the place of my biscuits.” Glancing over at the biscuits across the kitchen, she sighs. “My precious.”
My lips tilt upwards at her dramatics, my fingers running over the table until they hit an uneven surface. I glance down to our initials carved into the tabletop. We were seven when we did that.
Her voice pulls me out of my thoughts. “Do you have anyone in mind to ask to the summer ball? I was thinking of asking—”
Chef brings over our plates, cutting Oslana’s words off and winking at me. I’m so grateful for her deliberate interruption. I want to be the one to ask Oslana to the ball, as my betrothed.
White plates, stacked high with hot cakes, fill our vision as they’re placed one by one before us. At the very top of Oslana’s plate, on top of the stack of pancakes, a single teal rose lies, the ring nestled in the petals, clearly visible.
At first, she doesn’t see it, simply cooing over the beauty of the rose. I see the exact moment her gaze catches on the ring. Her brow furrows into the picture of confusion before her eyes widen, her hands flying to her mouth as she looks at me in shock.
Heart beating wildly in my chest, I fall to one knee in a breath. “Oslana, will you do me the honor of being my wife?” Her eyes fill with tears but she doesn’t speak.Good, because I have more to say.“We have grown together, from children into adults, and I yearn to live my life with you always, until our hair turns gray and our children have children.”
As the emotion pooling in her eye’s spills onto her cheeks, I smile. This is exactly how I’d dreamed it would be. We will always cherish this moment.
Plucking the ring from the rose, she slides from her stool and spills to her knees in front of me. Confusion clouds my face as she places the ring in my hand, closing my fingers over it, as the tears fall freely down her face.
Maybe she doesn’t like the ring?
I open my mouth to speak but she places a finger over my mouth. “Oh, Anshar,” she says, her voice distraught. My heart sinks as she closes her eyes, only to open them and reveal the tide of sadness resting there. “You will always,alwayshold a place in my heart. But it can only be as my dearest friend—not as more. You are one of the greatest men that I have ever known and you will make a woman so incredibly happy one day.Shewill love you, the way that you deserve.”
I feel myself crumbling as I fall back into a sitting position on the cobblestone ground, completely numb to her words.
It doesn’t make sense. Never once did this possibility cross my mind.
How could it turn out like this?
How can she not realize that she will never find anyone who will love her as fiercely as I do?
I’d give my life for her. I’d make sure that any wish or demand is fulfilled in a heartbeat and never settle until she sleeps with a smile on her face every night.
The voice comes back to whisper in my mind,“I told you she wouldn’t make the right choice. She doesn’t respect you as an equal. You aren’t powerful enough to stand by her side as a king. I can still help you with that. Accept my offer.”
How did I have it so wrong? How could she reject me?
Her hand reaches for mine but I strike it away, locking eyes with her, letting her seemypain, monumental next to hers.
She sits back on her legs, defeated. “Anshar, please. I know this must hurt but you mean so much to me. That hasn’t changed. I will always want you in my life.”
But not as your husband. Not as your equal. How could you do this to us?
I watch the space between us, as deep and impassable as a gaping chasm. She ripped my heart from my chest, shattered it, and placed the shards between us to view and admire like artwork.
Something dark and twisted coils in the empty space in my chest. A cold rage creeps through my veins, the edges of my vision blackening. Resolve settles within me.
“I accept your offer,”I acquiesce.“We will complete the ritual tonight. I will prove to her that only I am capable of standing by her side. The way she needs and the way she deserves.”
Oslana’s eyes widen as she takes a guarded step back, concern crossing her face. “Anshar, why did your eyes flash black?”
A low chuckle settles in my chest. “You’ll regret this, Oslana. I will prove to you that I am the only one for you.”
I won’t let anyone else have you.
Chapter One
Lana
Silver threads of lightning streak through the darkened clouds looming in front of me. I anticipate the harsh boom of thunder that claps as I continue across the deserted land, devastated by the evidence of the desolation before me. What has my realm turned into in my absence?
