Page 25 of A Touch of Royalty
Cas lifted his head, looking at Emryn, who finally had color. And then at Asan, who was looking at Emryn like he’d discovered something both terrifying and momentous.
“Now you know,” Emery lifted her head to look at Asan. “You are too intelligent not to have put it together.”
“And so I have,” Asan said calmly. “But that does not mean I wish to harm you by screaming the word from the rooftops.”
“Would someone like to clarify?” Cas rose to his feet, feeling odd and floaty, the same way he felt after being healed. “What are you talking about?”
“I am-” Emryn rose to her feet and looked at him. “I am no true healer, Highness.”
“Then what are you?”
“I don’t know,” Emryn shook her head and wiped away the single tear that had escaped.
“I am going to do some research,” Asan said, reaching out and laying a hand on Cas’ shoulder. “I will return when I have the answers to the puzzle.”
Asan left the room, and Cas knew he would take the closest mirror back to his tower in the mountains. To examine all of the things he’d gathered and make them make sense.
Which meant that Cas was free to focus on his princess. Emryn was fidgeting under his gaze, single tears rolling down her cheeks and her wiping them away as fast as she could.
He could feel her fear, and wanted nothing more than to hold her until it stopped. And she was his wife, his princess, so there was no reason that he shouldn’t.
He reached for her, folding her into his arms, and wasn’t the least bit surprised when she broke down. There were words in the tears, but they were buried under the sobs and he couldn’t understand her.
But he held on, letting her cry and rubbing her back until she could calm down. Until she could rest, though she was shaking in his grasp. She could eventually look up at him, but Cas wasn’t going to let her apologize. So when she opened her mouth, he put a finger on her lips.
“No need to apologize, Emryn,” he said, offering her a handkerchief from his pocket. “It has been a tumultuous few days for you.”
He let her calm down, let her wipe the tears and the remnants of sorrow from her face and then smiled at her. “Shall we go celebrate?”
“As you say.”
They would do this again in six months, and when the nobility celebrated them again, she would have cause to smile.
17
AFTER
Emryn was tired, her head was ringing, and her grip on her fire was tenuous at best. She needed to sleep, but she’d just gotten married, and according to custom, she had to appear with her new husband in front of the nobility and thank them for coming.
Oh Mother, she was married.
And to the prince of Rodilla.
And the head healer had stripped her of her affiliation to the temple while accusing her of being power hungry. No matter how she’d tried to convince him that the only way that the prince lived was by closing the loop.
She’d always thought of the head healer as a father figure. And if he could believe that of her, what was the rest of the kingdom thinking?
Emryn shook her head, letting the prince lead her into the room where the nobility of Rodilla was assembled. Dancing and drinking, eating food that the common man would never see in his life. The entire thing smacked of the ludicrous. Why couldn’t she wake up?
She wasn’t asleep; she knew that, but why had the Moon Mother decreed this for her?
What had she done? What did she need to do? Both were valid questions and she had no way to seek the answers.
Emryn pasted a smile over the fear that was churning her gut and let the Prince lead her into speaking with the nobility. She didn’t know them and by and large she was dismissed by them in favor of speaking solely with the prince.
And Emryn was grateful for it. Grateful that she didn’t have to figure out how to reply politely to strangers while her fire was dancing just under her skin.
And Asan knew.
