Prince of Cats - Tasha Black Page 0,32

and under the sunlight, Piper began to really breathe.

She thought about her situation as she walked in the cool air. Pain rushed back into her heart, but so did anger and a mad sort of jealousy.

She stalked toward the rose garden, emotions running wild, safe in the knowledge that every being in the kingdom was gathering back at the castle, ready to watch another woman laying claim to her son and the man she loved.

The weight of it was onerous, and she stopped walking to lean against a maple tree and will herself not to weep.

It didn’t work. But at least today the tears ran down her cheeks silently, like in the movies.

“Piper?” The voice was deep and familiar.

“Heath,” she turned, surreptitiously trying wipe away her tears.

“Oh, Piper, what’s wrong?” he asked.

“He…he doesn’t want to see me anymore,” she heard herself wail.

Heath moved closer and opened his arms to her.

Mortifyingly, she fell into him and sobbed against his chest.

“That can’t be true,” he murmured, almost to himself. “My brother can be stubborn, but he’s no fool.”

“It was all a trick,” she moaned. “He never cared about me at all.”

“It was most definitely not a trick, lass,” Heath said sternly. “My brother is wild about you. He risked everything just to bring you here.”

She wanted to believe it, but she had been there, she had heard him say the words, felt the chill of the air on her skin when he had left her bed, taking his warmth away.

“Well whatever he felt, he dumped me,” she said.

She was sure those weren’t the right words for this place, but he clearly got her meaning.

“And you’re going to accept that?” Heath asked in disbelief. “You once tried to shoot me just for being on your path. Yet now you would let your way be blocked so easily?”

Suddenly the world clicked into focus.

He was absolutely right.

Piper Lee didn’t let the world happen to her.

Piper Lee took charge and got shit done.

“No,” she said firmly. “No, I’m not.”

She hitched up her skirts and took off for the castle.

“Wait a minute,” he yelled to her. “What are you doing?”

“I don’t know,” she yelled back. “But whatever it is, I can’t do it from here.”

23

Killian

Killian strode down the dark corridor, wishing he could walk away from himself.

He had awoken from dreams of burning, his chest feeling carved out as if from the blades of a thousand knives.

Walking away from Piper was the hardest thing he had ever done. And even knowing it was for her own good, that it gave hope that she might taste happiness one day, he selfishly hated the thought. All he wanted was to wrap himself around her, greedily shutting out the rest of the world so that no one could have any part of her but him.

His court would not look down on him if he did just that - placed her in a cage in the dungeons and toyed with her for decades. She was an outsider, after all, and a mortal, at that.

To openly love and honor a mortal would be blasphemy to his kind.

And he had already given himself to his kingdom.

He stepped into the Hall of Honor, a widening of the main corridor, just before it narrowed again, leading out to the royal balcony where he and Wynter would be holding the public ceremony for Kieran. He could already hear the crowd gathered below.

He spotted Wynter at the threshold of the balcony now, her two serving boys fussing with her gown as the guards looked on, none of them paying a bit of mind to the babe in the pram beside her, in whose honor all of this had been arranged.

He stopped, preferring to commune with the souls in the Hall of Honor until it was time to step onto the balcony and greet his people. The dead made for better company than his wife-to-be.

The walls of the Hall of Honor were covered in paintings of Killian’s ancestors. Their battle-scarred armor was displayed on wooden mannequins along either side, and even some of their beautiful old weapons were hung for all to admire. It had all been recently dusted and polished, in preparation for today’s event.

He had spent many hours here as a little boy, cheering himself up if he felt sad or lonely by visiting with the Autumn Court of the past and reliving their adventures in his imagination.

Now he looked on the faces with a different eye.

Each and every one of them had made sacrifices to