Kingdom of Sea and Stone (Crown of Coral and Pearl #2) - Mara Rutherford Page 0,98

I didn’t have it in me to be cordial.

I glanced back at Father occasionally to make sure he was all right. Though he breathed heavily with exertion, his expression remained neutral. He wasn’t injured, as far as I could tell, but he was thin and clearly weakened from his time in the mountain. I had to fight every instinct in my body to turn and embrace him. I had wanted so badly to see him, but not like this.

Finally, we reached the top of the mountain. It was even more heavily defended than when I’d lived here. As we stepped through the massive doors into the main hall, my entire body went cold, despite the blazing fires. The ironstone throne that had sat empty for my entire time at New Castle somehow looked more lived in.

Everywhere we passed, guards, servants, and nobles bowed to Ceren. Murmurs of “Your Highness” and “Sire” followed in his wake. I had forgotten that to these people, he was King Ceren now. Almost everyone I saw wore a bloodstone, and I couldn’t help noticing how they came alive as he passed, before quickly slipping back into their coma-like trances. Ceren had shown me a hundred times how much evil he was capable of, but it still shook me to my core to witness it.

“I hope you’ve enjoyed your time playing warrior,” Ceren said, nodding at my armor. “I’m afraid it’s back to corsets and gowns for you.”

I wrinkled my nose in disgust. “Why bother when I’m going to be spending my time in a dungeon?”

“Do you really think so little of my hospitality? You’ll be staying in your old room, of course.”

I stopped, and Father bumped into my back. “No, I’m not.”

“I can prepare a different chamber, if you prefer.”

“I’ll stay in the dungeon with my father.”

Ceren shook his head. The bloodstones in his crown pulsed faintly, still in time to my own heartbeat. “That’s completely unnecessary. I know you won’t go anywhere while your father is in a cell, and I need you to be healthy.”

I swallowed back the bile burning in my throat. “I’d prefer to be with him.” I took my father’s hand and squeezed it, but it was disturbingly limp and lifeless in my grasp. “Please, just take off the bloodstone. I only want to talk to him, to let him know I’m here.”

“The stone will be removed soon enough.” One of the guards stepped away from the wall and took my father’s arm, who went in the direction of the dungeon without a fight. I had to hold myself back from going after him.

Ceren led me toward my chambers, though I knew the way all too well. “How is my brother?” he asked, staring at his fingernails as if he didn’t really care one way or the other. “He can’t be happy that you made a deal with me. I imagine this is exactly what he feared would happen.”

“Talin is fine.”

“I must say, I’m a bit surprised you aren’t married yet. Tell me, is that because of you or him?”

“My relationship with Talin is none of your business,” I said flatly.

“So it’s you, then. Why are you keeping him waiting? He gave up the crown for you, Nor. If that doesn’t prove his love, nothing will.”

I wanted to tell him he was completely wrong. Talin had proven his love for me in a hundred other ways that had nothing to do with the crown. But though I had agreed to let Ceren bleed me, he had no right to my inner thoughts or feelings.

“Why haven’t you chosen your queen yet?” I asked instead. “I believe you once told me you could have any woman you wanted. I hear Lady Hyacinth is up to the task.”

He grunted. “Where did you hear that bit of nonsense?”

“I have my sources,” I replied, sensing I had touched a nerve. “She heads your war council, doesn’t she?”

He turned toward me. “She does. And any attachment she may feel to me is purely based on her desire for power. Her ruthlessness is exceeded only by my own.”

What was I detecting in his voice? I didn’t believe Ceren had ever had real feelings for me, though he had tried to woo me in his own sick way. He had even offered me his mother’s crown, made from the blood coral and pearls that came from Princess Ilara’s body. If I had sacrificed myself then, I may have prevented everything that had come since, though I couldn’t possibly