Page 91 of The Dark Prince
“Very well. I will check on … everything, I suppose.”
I watched her go with longing in my heart.
“So you’ll let me go then?”Maddeus had always been level-headed, but emotion choked his voice.
“Is that what you wish?” I asked, watching him closely for a reaction.
“I want to help her,” he answered immediately, looking at her in a way that wasn’t dissimilar to how I looked at Isadora.
“When did this happen?” I asked instead.
He sighed. “Isadora ordered me to keep her company. Mostly to keep them separate.” He chuckled. “I left her only when you changed, and that’s when she got hurt.” Determination spread over his features, his lips thinning with displeasure. “I don’t intend to leave her again.”
I raised an eyebrow. “And if she doesn’t want you by her side?”
He visibly flinched, then wilted. “Then … well … maybe don’t release me from your service so soon.”
I laughed. “What has happened to us, eh? I was the most feared man in the kingdom, and you were at my first.”
“We fell in love,” Maddeus answered, stroking Aella’s hair away from her face.
I sobered at the thought of all that needed done. “My wife will not bear this crown long. If you truly love her and she will have you, Aella will rise to become queen, and you will be King Consort.”
Maddeus went still. I supposed he hadn’t thought of that. “Aella doesn’t—”
“Oh, no, you don’t,” I cut him off, snarling. “It is her birthright. They have trained her for it since birth. And my wifewill not sufferas I have suffered. So unless it falls from Aella’s lips herself that she denies her own kingdom, then you will suck it up, marry her, and rule as King Consort.”
I drew back, crossing my arms over my chest. Maddeus glared at me, then deflated. “I don’t care,” he admitted softly. “As long as it’s what she wants.”
I huffed. “Then we agree. Whatever they want.”
A laugh bubbled up in my chest, but I pushed it down. We were two men in the prime of our youth, now henpecked and beholden to women half our sizes.
And we fucking loved it.
“I’ll leave you to it.”
Maddeus nodded, and I left.
* * *
Two days later, Aella woke up and demanded to see our father’s body. Her face wasn’t healing, but she wore my old mask like it had always been a part of her (after making some slight adjustments, of course). If anything, the white leather made her look more regal, and more than once I caught my men or the servants staring at her in awe.
Aella spent an hour alone in Isadora’s chambers with our father, then emerged with a dry face. “It’s time to go.”
Isadora had Bennett and the remaining guards ready the former king for transport. The next day, the party would begin traveling back toward Hythe, and Aella would go with him.
Their last journey together.
Part of me felt a responsibility to do it with her, but Aella insisted on me staying here and ‘enjoying my honeymoon,’ which she’d said with a knowing smirk. I’d like nothing more than to take my wife to bed and ensure she stayed there, but my emotions were a mess and there was too much going on. I wouldn’t settle until life went back to normal.
Which it wouldn’t, because Isadora was technically fucking queen.
“Tyr.”
My wife found me in the west wing, morosely staring at a crumbling window. I hadn’t been here in so long, and now I found I couldn’t tear myself from it. The abandoned wing reminded me of myself; in need of a lot of work.
“What are you thinking about?”Her arms wrapped around my waist as she leaned into me, inhaling my scent. My lips twitched, and I tucked her in against my side.
