Dividing Eden (Dividing Eden #1)(25)

“I failed to keep my betrothed safe.”

“It was the King’s Guard’s job to ensure their safety.”

“It was mine as well. And I failed. I so badly wanted to do what was right for the kingdom. I tried to follow what I believed was right. But I was wrong.”

“I’m sorry,” Andreus said. While he might not believe in the power she claimed to have, he did understand guilt. “I wish I could have changed things, too. I could have ridden to the battlefields with my father and Micah. Maybe if I had, I would have seen the attackers approach. I could have helped them.”

Imogen walked to him. The silk of her skirts rustled. She reached out to touch him, then just before she did pulled her fingers back. Quietly, she said, “There is nothing you could have done that a hundred and fifty men surrounding them did not try. But if I had not trusted the Guild or the vision I had telling me this would be my home, I would never have come to the Palace of Winds. Your brother and the King would not have placed their faith in me.

“I wanted to believe the vision that I belonged somewhere. That I didn’t have a home as a child because my true home was waiting for me to arrive. I was foolish and Micah should have let the Council and the King replace me as seer. If he hadn’t intervened—”

“Wait a minute.” Andreus stopped her. “My father and the Council wanted to remove you as seer?”

Seer of Eden wasn’t a job that someone just walked away from. The oath the seer took was for life.

“I didn’t mean to say that, Your Highness. Micah said no one was to know. I am just upset and saying things I shouldn’t. Everything will work out as it should.” Imogen dropped her gaze to the ground and wrapped her arms around herself. “You should visit your sister. The Princess shouldn’t be alone now.”

No. Carys shouldn’t be alone. Not tonight. Not after losing half their family and having to be punished for saving him. She should see for herself that she had succeeded and that he was okay. He owed her that. But what Imogen was talking about . . . a removal of a seer only happened upon the seer’s death—whether by natural causes or ordered by the king.

“My sister is a strong woman. She knows where to find me if she needs me. If you need help, let me help you.”

“Prince Micah said . . .”

“Prince Micah is gone.” Andreus took a step forward. He put a hand under Imogen’s chin and tilted her face up. “He can’t protect you.” Not that Micah was ever interested in protecting his betrothed. To Andreus’s eye, Imogen was just a means to an end. “But together we might be able to find a way to keep you safe. But you have to tell me what has happened that I don’t know about.”

She held her breath and studied him for a heartbeat. Two.

He saw the memory of that one night on the battlements in her eyes. For weeks, Andreus joined the shy, slight seeress there to help her understand the new windmill designs and the lines that carried their power to the lights on the castle and into the city below. At first her questions had been hesitant, but day after day her voice grew stronger and her words more confident. At least, with him. Andreus loved watching her come alive. He’d enjoyed seeing the smile that only seemed to appear when he came near and he wanted nothing more than to pull her close and keep her safe when she spoke of the family she’d lost when she was five. She’d talked to him quietly of how she wanted the Palace of Winds to be the home she’d never had, and Andreus recognized the same desire that he had experienced his entire life. The longing for utter safety.

Her beauty. Her passion for the wind. Her need for protection stirred him.

Then Micah and Imogen announced their betrothal and he’d felt betrayed.

It was Imogen who sought him out on the battlements later that night. To thank him, she said, for making her feel as if she was important. She took his arm and a spark passed through her touch even as the wind blew cold. Because of the chill, no one else braved the night atop the castle. There was no one to see him tilt his head down intending to meet her cheek only to have her turn. His lips touched hers and nothing else mattered. The shyness he had come to expect was gone. Suddenly she was like the wind—pulling at him. They fumbled into one of the windmills where nothing else mattered but the warmth of her skin.

A week later Imogen found him again—this time to ask Andreus to keep his distance out of deference to his brother. Andreus wanted to ask her why she’d agreed to marry Micah, but she walked away before he had the chance. He’d told himself he didn’t care. One night—one girl was nothing to him. To prove it he’d found other women to enjoy and used them to try and wedge a shield between Imogen and his heart.

Standing here with her hand in his, he admitted that those shields had never really existed. He wanted to hold and protect her now just as much as he had in the windmill that night.

“Please, Imogen,” he said, taking her hand. “Tell me what I can do to help you.”

Her eyes brimmed with tears. “I cannot believe after all I have done you are willing to help me. And I am grateful but there is little that you can do. I know you don’t believe in the visions, my prince. Micah said you have always doubted, so there is no way for you to understand what it is like to live your life being ruled by faith. Until I came to the Palace of Winds, my voice to the wind was strong and my sight to the stars was clear. Never when I asked the stars for guidance did they betray me. But ever since coming inside these walls I have had only one vision. The Council believes the Guild lied about my abilities. That I am part of a plot against your family and the Kingdom of Eden. But I’m not. Micah told them I wasn’t and he had me . . .”