A Kingdom of Blood and Betrayal (Stars and Shadows #2)(22)

“When he fed from me it was…” I could feel my blush heating my cheeks.

“It brought you pleasure, did it not?”

“Did he tell you of all the lies he fed me to make me feel the need to let him feed from me?” I crossed my arms over my chest.

Sorin was quiet for a long moment before his gaze ran over me slowly. “It’s a shame that the two of you are mates. Without that, I may have stood a chance at stealing you away from him.” His tone was teasing, and I had a feeling he was trying to get a rise out of me.

“We are not mates,” I growled the words between my teeth. It didn’t matter that he was right. I hated that everyone knew the truth so easily when I had just come to accept it myself.

“It doesn’t matter that you say those words with so much conviction, Adara. You cannot change who your mate is simply because you wish it so.”

I didn’t say a word. I simply stared at him as I thought about what he said.

“I can smell him, feel his magic radiating off your skin.” His gaze ran over my face. “There isn’t a single chance of you hiding it.”

My stomach hardened, and I tried to swallow down my emotion. “Where is he?”

His gaze darkened, and I hated the feeling it gave me.

“Is he in his room?”

“He didn’t tell you?” He watched me carefully, too carefully.

“Tell me what?” My heart hammered in my chest, and I pressed my fingers against my thighs to keep them from trembling. “What don’t I know?”

“He left tonight under the cover of darkness. He and Jorah are headed back to his father’s kingdom.”

Everything stopped as I stared at him and tried to take in his words. I couldn’t catch my breath, and my chest ached to the point of pain.

“He went back?”

“You say that like he has a choice.” There was an edge of anger in Sorin’s voice. “Our prince may be a lot of things that you think about him, but he has lived a life of sacrifice for his people.”

I could hear the truth in his words as I gasped for breath. I pressed my hand against my chest in an effort to relieve the tension that pulled there. He brought me here then he left me. He left me, and he didn’t dare say goodbye. My heart hammered as anger fueled me, but there was also so much regret. I should have spoken to him instead of storming out of his room. I should have told him the truth about how torn I was over the need to protect myself and the need to be near him.

“He left me.”

“He will do whatever it takes to protect our people. He has spent his entire life making sure we weren’t destroyed under his father and brother’s rule.”

Sorin slid off the counter and moved in front of me. He stared up at me as if he needed my full attention for the next words that passed his lips. “The people of this kingdom will follow Evren blindly wherever he asks them to go. We will do anything he asks of us, and we aren’t willing to do that because he’s like his brother. He is everything that his brother is not.”

“And what if you’re wrong?” I could hear the fear in my voice, the desperation to believe what he said about Evren to be true but the fear that it wasn’t.

“If you believe that”—he shook his head softly as he started walking toward the door—“then you don’t know your mate at all.”





CHAPTER 8





It had been two days since Evren left. Two days of excruciating worry and fear. Emotions that ate at me even though I reminded myself repeatedly of who he was and what he’d done. But I had no choice in how I felt.

It wasn’t a choice, and I feared what would happen to him if Queen Kaida already knew of his treason. It wouldn’t matter that he was the son of her king. He would become a traitor above all else.

All because he had taken me.

A loud knock sounded at my door and had me looking away from the window. The knock sounded again, hard, loud, impatient, and my gut sank.

My heart lodged in my throat. What if it was Evren?

Could he be back so soon?

I rushed toward the door and jerked it open. I pushed my hair out of my face, and I couldn’t hide my desperation that it was him on the other side of that door.

Even through my fear of who he was, I would have given anything for it to be him.

But I stopped in my tracks when I came face to face with Thalia leaning against my doorframe. Clothing dangled from the crook of her arm, and she watched me in a way that was so calculating yet so unbothered. She was a Starblessed, but that didn’t mean we had any similarities between us. She was a member of this Blood Court, and I was cautious of her as I was everyone else.

“Can I help you?” I straightened out the simple dress that Mina had left for me this morning, and Thalia tracked the movement, taking in my nervous tics for exactly what they were.

“Were you expecting someone else?” Her dark gaze fell upon mine, and I quickly shook my head.

“I was kind of hoping you were lunch.”

“That’ll have to wait.” She straightened to her full height, a few inches taller than me, and tossed the clothing in my direction. I was forced to catch them, and I tugged them close to my chest as I looked up at her like she was crazy. “Get dressed.”

“I am dressed.” I looked down but stopped short at the sound of her scoff.