Dragons Against Them (Kingdoms of Fire and Ice #2)(45)

“Thank you. Your Highness.”

His hand rose to cover hers as Jaxon turned to meet her gaze. “You do not believe me a prince?”

“I…” What could she say? It was true, she did not. But to insult him now might cause irreparable damage to her relationship with both him and his mother. And yet, she felt as though honesty was her lone option. “It is just that in all my years, I have known but two kingdoms. To learn of a third, to acknowledge a third, will take time on my part.”

“Does a kingdom require a castle?”

She tried to withdraw her hand, but he held it to his face, leaning in to it. “I suppose not.”

“A king, then?”

“If one has been named, yes.”

“And a queen?”

His gaze began to glow, the color a deep brownish red. Rosalind’s body seemed to come alive at the sight, her heart hammering as her lips parted. “A noble king requires a strong queen at his side.”

Jaxon turned to press his lips to the center of her palm. “And is that what you wish to be? The strong queen at her king’s side?”

“Aye,” she breathed. “The strongest her lands have seen.”

With a low growl, Jaxon pulled her to him and claimed her lips with his own. Rosalind knew she should push him away, and yet she couldn’t. Didn’t. Her body would have it no other way. In his grasp, as his hands now raked into her hair, she felt a power she hadn’t with Quinn. With him, it had always been an act of disobedience to her father and submission to her lover.

But this, this was something else entirely.

Jaxon’s grasp was intentional, yet giving. Confident, yet conditional. She sensed that but a single push from her would make him cease his behavior. But she dared not push him away, wished to hold on to this moment, this surge of power. For like a wildfire in the dry of summer, surely it could not last.

All too soon, Jaxon indeed drew back, his gaze dark with desire. “A queen to be reckoned with, ye shall surely be.”

“Ah, but a throne I must first claim. Thus my offering to your mother, in exchange for her help in claiming the one that should have been mine.”

“’Tis not Prince Zayne’s heart you desire, but his throne.”

Again, he spoke not a question but fact. Again, she felt defenseless to answer with anything but the truth. “My father traded my hand in marriage for a pledge of peace with Edana, thus ensuring my ascension to queen. Here in Forath, I shall never sit upon the throne. Not with an elder brother, and a father yet upon it.”

“Do you love Zayne?”

Rosalind snorted. “No.”

“Yet you seek his hand in marriage?”

“To claim a throne, I must marry an heir. In a man’s world, ’tis my only recourse.” Anger began to boil her blood. “Besides, love is not what makes a mighty ruler. Power is.”

“Is that what makes your father a mighty ruler, then? His lack of love?”

“My father is a weak ruler, intent on avoiding war at any cost.”

Jaxon reached to cup her chin. “Or at the cost of his lone daughter.”

“Well, now he has two.”

“A blessing, not a curse.”

“Is it his side you take now?” Rosalind pushed Jaxon away and rose to her feet, grimacing as the feeling of pins and needles pricked at her legs. “Why bother with this attack? Why not send him a gift of wild boar or a basket of your finest harvest?”

“Life, Princess Rosalind, is always a gift. The strongest, bravest rulers understand this truth beyond all others. For it is their responsibility to keep their subjects, their flock, alive and well.” He stood as well but kept his distance. “To be the strong, wise leader I envision ye shall become, ye must first come to accept this one truth: to rule is first to serve, and no’ the other way around. And to love…” He stepped forward and bent so that his gaze was level with hers, “is the greatest act of trust and humility there is.”

With that, he started back the way they came, leaving her to digest his words in a moment of silent rage. Love? Bah. What did this man, this self-proclaimed prince who had been with one woman only hours before and now kissing another know of love?

Or of ruling, for that matter?

Far more than you, whispered a tiny voice in the back of her mind. With a frown, she stalked off after him.

“I shall prove you wrong,” Rosalind muttered under her breath. “I shall prove you all wrong.”





Chapter 25





Tristan swooped into a clearing near their agreed-upon hiding place, deposited Adelaide near its wooded edge, and then stalked a short distance from her to transform. From the look of the place, they had arrived ahead of Quinn and Zayne. And though Tristan knew he needed to transform and make way for the others, it took several minutes more before he was able to calm his inner beast and return to human form once again. And still his anger remained.

Few days in his life had gone so poorly. It had been bad enough to erroneously accuse his sister’s fiancé of treason and then be battered by her upon his confession, but to discover his oldest and closest friend had kept such an important secret from him all this time? He felt as though he’d been lanced by Quinn’s very sword.

“My mother is their queen.”