enough to move him, but it wasn’t.
Which left her with only one option.
‘Yes,’ she said thickly. ‘I need to go home. Back to the convent.’
The prince’s face was expressionless, but something shifted in his dark eyes. ‘If you would prefer to leave earlier and not at His Majesty’s pleasure, I can arrange that for you.’
Yes, she could go tonight. She didn’t have to wait until he got rid of her.
It wasn’t much of a power move, but it was better than nothing.
Anna took a deep breath, wiping the remaining tears from her face, and met Xerxes’s steady gaze. ‘Yes, I think I’d like that.’
He nodded. ‘You’d better start packing, then.’
Then she remembered something. ‘Xerxes, I need Ione to know that I’m not leaving because of her. That I would have stayed if I could.’
‘I’ll tell her.’
Tears threatened again, but she fought them down. ‘She’s a special little girl. Adonis needs her so much.’
‘Oh, I know. And don’t worry.’ There was a fierce glint in Xerxes’s gaze all of a sudden. ‘I’ll make sure he’s made aware of that.’
The next morning, Adonis made preparations to fly Anna back home to England, only to discover that she’d already gone. Apparently, she’d left in the depths of the night in one of the royal jets, courtesy of his brother.
He wasn’t upset. Any pain he’d felt earlier was gone. He felt nothing, only a sense of...heaviness. As if something weighty had descended on his shoulders, something that would be there for ever.
But that was fine. He was carrying the heavy burden of his country anyway, so what was a little more weight?
He adjusted his arrangements, sending one of his aides to England instead to keep him up to date with the progress of her pregnancy. A decision needed to be made about that, but he had a few weeks yet; he’d make it closer to the time.
Right now, though, there was a wedding to be cancelled, not to mention other decisions to make, including finding a new companion for Ione.
He was in the middle of working through a stack of papers that afternoon, when the doors of his office flew open and his daughter came racing in, tears staining her face.
He frowned at her, a pang of something echoing inside him that he reflexively ignored. ‘What’s wrong?’ he asked, putting his pen down. ‘Where is your—’
‘Where’s Anna?’ Ione demanded. ‘I want Anna!’
Another something in his chest shifted, making it tighten. ‘She had to go home to England, little one.’
‘No!’ Ione shouted. ‘You told me she was going to be my mama. You said we would be a family.’
A sense of pressure increased in his chest, like someone pressing a hand down directly above his heart. ‘That’s not going to happen now,’ he said firmly. ‘She had to—’
‘I hate you!’ Ione’s bright blue eyes, so like his own, were burning with rage. ‘I hate you, Papa!’ Then she turned and ran out of the room, weeping.
Adonis’s jaw tightened, the pressure on his chest intensifying. He ignored it. She would learn, as he had, what it meant to sacrifice everything for the throne.
‘Don’t become him...if not for my sake, at least for hers.’
Anna’s voice wound through his head, but he had no time to dwell on it, because Xerxes was suddenly strolling in, his dark eyes far too sharp for Adonis’s liking. ‘Ione is not happy with you, apparently,’ he said casually.
‘Get out,’ Adonis ordered. ‘I have work to do.’
‘Or perhaps a high horse to sit on.’ Xerxes ignored him, coming up to his desk. ‘Tell me, is it cold up there, Your Majesty? Is it comfortable? Does it matter that you’ve broken a woman’s heart, not to mention your daughter’s?’
Adonis didn’t think that relentless pressure inside him could get any worse, but apparently that wasn’t the case. It felt as if he was suffocating.
He kept himself very still, because if he moved he would suffocate. Either that or he’d explode and Xerxes would get caught in the fallout. ‘I don’t recall asking for your opinion, Xerxes. What I would like you to do is get out...’
His brother leaned over his desk and casually knocked his stack of papers over, scattering them on the floor. ‘Look up and pay attention,’ he snapped. ‘The best thing to come into your life since Ione has gone and all you can think about is your work? Are you as blind as you are stupid?’
Adonis wasn’t sure if it was the papers that broke him or Xerxes’s insolent tone. Or