The Curse (Belador #3)(59)

You won’t have …

Who did this guard think he was talking to?

But Tzader’s power, because he was present only as a hologram, did not extend to inside the castle.

Tzader took in the way Brina’s head tilted back as she looked up at Allyn with adoring eyes she’d once had only for Tzader. At that moment, Tzader finally accepted what he’d been denying since seeing the guard walk into the room.

Brina wasn’t just ready to move on.

She had moved on.

All this time, Tzader hadn’t wanted to believe Macha when she’d claimed Brina wanted him to walk away and forget about her.

Asking him to cut off both of his arms would have been easier.

But the truth stared him in the face.

He had to leave before he did or said something really stupid, or dangerous.

Brina lowered her chin, her cool gaze unwavering.

Tzader squeezed the words from his clenched throat. “My apologies, Your Highness. Unless you send for me, I will forward any future reports via e-mail until I’ve located the traitor, to prevent imposing on your time. Excuse me as I take my leave.”

She opened her mouth to speak, but he’d already started the hologram transfer back to his body in North America.

Within a few minutes, he’d be whole again.

Except for the spot where his heart used to be.

—

“This was a mistake of astronomical proportions.” Allyn spoke softly, but his face was hard.

When Brina drew a breath and released his hand, Allyn’s fingers slipped from her shoulder. She needed a moment. Couldn’t be lettin’ her bottled-up tears fall. Not now. Tzader had left as if he couldn’t wait to get out of the room.

But that had been the point, had it not?

She had no time to coddle her misery. “It will be all right, Allyn.”

“You actually believe that, Your Highness?” Her guard expelled a long stream of breath born of disbelief and paced across the room. He stopped, turning to face her. “Tzader is not one to be easily fooled and neither is Macha. Do you really think he’ll walk away from you this easily?”

“I would have said no until just now. I have never seen him so put out with me.”

“That was far more than put out.” Allyn looked up at the tall ceiling for a long moment, as if someone would help him, then back down at her. “You have no idea what a man like Tzader will do for the woman he loves, do you? This is a dangerous game you play, Your Highness.”

“Aye, you’re right, but this is no game.” She forced iron into her backbone, prepared to do whatever it took to see this through. “This is war an’ I swear to you that I intend to win it, an’ soon.”

Macha had given Brina a deadline to produce an heir in twelve months, of which two were almost gone.

My fault for bringin’ up the topic of an heir, foolishly thinkin’ Macha would find a way for me an’ Tzader to be together. Instead, Macha had turned the tables on Brina by demanding she perform her duty as the Belador warrior queen and get busy producin’ an heir, which meant releasing Tzader of his vow of love and Brina choosing another man.

Did Macha believe men were as interchangeable as her hair color that shifted with her moods?

The goddess had painted Brina as the one with no honor for refusin’ to let Tzader go. As if Brina didn’t feel guilty enough? She could not expect a man like Tzader to wait forever. He’d never be able to cross the protective ward on the castle and Macha couldn’t break the warding. Or so she claimed.

The goddess had manipulated a deal where Brina now had to convince Tzader that she no longer cared for him, which Brina would do. Her word was her bond.

But Macha had made a tactical error.

The goddess had allowed a loophole by agreein’ to reconsider their situation if, once Brina convinced Tzader they were done, he still came back for her. Dealin’ with gods and goddesses was much like handlin’ a greased eel. Just when you thought you had a grip on the situation, it slipped away. That’s why Brina had pressed Macha for a specific time frame in which Tzader had to walk away and come back. If … no, when Tzader came back in time, Brina had another chance with him.

She got her deadline.

Brina had until she married another man.

Macha clearly believed she’d settled the situation, but Brina had been reared a warrior’s daughter who did not give up easily.

For that reason, she had taken matters into her own hands. She’d start the clock tickin’ now by sendin’ Macha to see Tzader so that the goddess could determine immediately whether he believed his relationship with Brina was over.

Then Brina would move to the next step in her plan to get him back.

Unless she’d misjudged the depth of Tzader’s love for her.

Allyn took a step toward her, arms crossed as he moved. For the three years that he’d been part of her guard, he always had a positive word for her when he checked in on her first thing in the mornin’ and again at the end of each day. The grim shape of his mouth indicated that he’d resigned himself to his role of royal boyfriend.

Good thing, since she could make no change in her game plan now that she’d introduced Allyn as the new man in her life.

He said, “I will gladly do my part, Your Highness, to convince one and all that you are mine. But what if this does not work? Have you considered the consequences?”