Page 47 of The King's Queen

“I don’t want your pity.”

“Then I won’t give it,” I amend with a small smirk. “Mavis might have schooled any pity from my heart years ago.”

The words slip from between my lips before I can stop them, and despite this, the coming question still stings worse than the biting wind.

“Who is this Mavis?” Vera giggles softly to herself. “I mean, I know the whole sworn nemesis plotline from the others, but who is she to you?”

I brace myself against the brutal truth. How will Vera feel to know this, how will things change between us? Perhaps she will simply turn away, and it will not be entirely unjustified.

“She’s my ex-fiancé.”

Vera blinks once, then twice.

And then she laughs, and even though she’s laughing at me, it feels as if every fiber of my being has been lit on fire. It’s the way she throws her head back and doesn’t hide the silver tears dripping down her cheeks. How raw and real she feels, and how something alive begins to stir in my cold chest.

I know now that if I could only hear one sound for the rest of eternity, it would be her laugh. Clear and sweet as sunlight reflecting on the ocean, it would be a blessing to never hear anything else again.

“Shut up,” I say.

This only makes Vera laugh harder, clutching my forearm as she doubles over. Then it hits me, and I fight the urge to keel over myself. For all those burning touches, those shared moments of raw vulnerability, and the constellation of freckles across her cheek, her nose, and the lightness in my chest mean something. Something I have run from, a truth that I buried to avoid further wounds. Because the truth is that I have fallen in love with Verosa, and I know she deserves someone far greater than I could ever hope to become.

I cannot even say that a woman like Vera deserves better, because there is no other like her, and there never will be. Perhaps that is what I’ve feared the most all along, that for her there will be better men, but for me there will be no one else.

“I’m sorry.” She wipes at her eyes with the back of her hand. “It’s just of all the answers I expected… Wow.”

“Wow? That’s all you can say?”

“I mean what did you expect me to say? I thought this was just a turf war, but that’s deeper and awful.”

“Thank you for pointing that out.” I groan and pinch the bridge of my nose. “I thought you’d be horrified or disgusted.”

Vera peers out from underneath her bangs, her head quirked in a curious gesture that reminds me unflatteringly of a parrot. She would probably hit me if she were able to hear my thoughts.

“I had a relationship with the captain of the Guard and pined after him for years, and you’re currently helping me run away from my fiancé. Why would I be horrified by your one failed relationships?”

A faint heat creeps its way up my neck, and I find myself turning my head away. Of course, Verosa wouldn’t be disgusted. She’s not Mavis. No, she’s so much braver and kinder.

A thought fleets across my mind. Perhaps Derrín was right. Maybe Vera would stay with us if I asked her. Maybe, just maybe, she could be a Nightwalker.

“Vera, would you-“

I turn to her to find her doubling over in pain, her veins glowing faint beneath her skin. Her eyes are squeezed tightly shut, and her breaths coming out in short wheezing puffs.

“Vera? Verosa!”

The pureblood doesn’t respond.

Chapter18

Verosa

The pain is incomparable to any other pain I’ve felt in my nineteen years of living. I had attempted to ignore the growing and searing pain as I spoke with Rowan, pleased to finally be able to unearth the human beneath the killer, but my bout of laughter sent hot pain shooting from my core through my limbs. It felt as if a fire had been lit, a fire which is now trying to burn me through.

Rowan flips me onto my back and swears vehemently. His hands pull back to reveal burn marks. Iburnedhim.

Regardless, I feel his arms loop under my knees and arms before we are walking, no, running away from the cliffside. The smell of smoke fills my nostrils as Rowan sprints, but he grits his teeth and continues.

“What is happening to me?” I rasp between dry and cracking lips. My eyes swell shut until I can’t see the friend holding me anymore.

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