Page 14 of Lies That Bind
“Thank you for the wonderful meal,” I told her and clasped my hands together.
“It was my honor,” she responded.
I turned my back on them then and made my way out to Liana.
What had started as a lovely night with people I’d been wanting to know more about my entire life, had turned into a sick feeling in my stomach. If Imbria rose up against me, I wasn’t sure I was ready to fight two wars on two different fronts. I didn’t want to hurt them; I wanted to welcome them to Amersea in a way my father never did. But maybe this was the proof my naivety needed.
I walked to the road, where Liana and Onyx waited. Kohen followed after me. Reaching for my arm, he turned me to face him. My chest was heaving. I was so upset. Everyone else had dispersed, making their way back to their homes, but I was stuck staring into Kohen’s impossibly blue eyes with a horrifying question on my lips.
“Have you seen it? Have you seen Imbria attack Amersea?” I asked him.
He looked saddened by my question and shook his head. “No, Imbria doesn’t attack Amersea first.”
I frowned. “What do you meanfirst?”
Kohen let out a deep breath and held my gaze. “Aisling, I wish I could just fast forward us to when everything is better and we are together.”
I shook my head. “That’s not how life works.”
He nodded. “I know.” Then he looked out at the lights off in the distance, another town. “My little brothers are so close. I wish I could see them,” he said wistfully.
His brothers? That shocked me. I’d forgotten he had two little brothers.
“Where do they live?” I asked, suddenly distracted by what he’d said as my earlier anger fled. Though I intended to circle back around to what he had said.
“They used to be in a rundown government school in Nimra, but when we started boot camp and I got my first Fleet paycheck, I sent them to a nice boarding school in Sorak. It’s just over there.” He pointed to the lights in the distance.
He was telling me where he had stashed his little brothers away? That was something you only did with a person you trusted. “Well, you should go see them,” I said, and then I got back to the topic at hand. “Kohen, what do you mean that Imbria doesn’t attack Amerseafirst?”
Kohen glanced at Onyx as if he was itching to ride him away from here so that he wouldn’t have to answer me.
“Youattack Imbria first, Aisling. You lead an angry mob of soldiers into our land, and you burn a lot of it down.”
I gasped. “I would never! Why?”
Kohen reached for my hands and then thought better of it. There were still people milling around. “There are so many things I want to tell you, but you won’t believe me. If I tell you, it will make things between us worse.”
I frowned. “What? Try me.”
He shook his head vigorously. “No. I’ve made that mistake before. You’ll just have to figure things out on your own. It’s better that way.”
I growled because what he’d said was so annoying. “Do you want to be king? To lead your people like your father did?” I asked him, thinking back to what the man had said.
He didn’t answer right away, and I knew that it meant he did. Was he just using me? Making me soft towards him so that I would give him his kingdom back? Because I’d do that over my dead body.
“I wouldn’t shy away from leadership if the opportunity fell into my lap, but my loyalty is to you first, Aisling. Then to Amersea, the Fleet, and Imbria last.”
I gasped at the declaration. Me first? That was a bold thing to say. It was therightthing to say. Maybe he knew that.
“Because I’m your empress?”
He shook his head and stepped closer to me, letting his breath brush against my ear. “Because I’m in love with you,” he whispered.
I stood there in complete shock as he then walked over to Onyx, slid one leg over her back, and took for the skies.
Did he…did Kohen Badshah just say he loved me?
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