Total pages in book: 29
Estimated words: 27560 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 138(@200wpm)___ 110(@250wpm)___ 92(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 27560 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 138(@200wpm)___ 110(@250wpm)___ 92(@300wpm)
My phone rings in my pocket, but he doesn’t turn around. He’s disappeared into the trees, and I fumble with my phone through my tears. Agony is making my fingers and heart numb.
When I see it’s Violet, I answer immediately asking her, “What’s wrong? Is it Father’s health?”
Her voice is shaky, as if she’s been crying. “You must come home immediately, Princess. Your father’s illness is getting worse.”
“But Rafe—”
“It’s too late. You have to come now,” she insists.
I square my shoulders. I can’t help Rafe through his pain. He’s not willing to let me, but there is a kingdom that needs me. “I’ll be there.”
I end the call and turn in a circle, realizing that I don’t know the way back.
Roman is standing on his porch, regarding me with a mixture of pity and compassion. “Give him time. He’ll come around.”
“There isn’t time. I have to get home. Father is—” I press a hand to my mouth. It feels like everything is crashing down on me at once.
“Got it.” He pulls his keys from his pocket. “Are you sure you don’t want to try to say goodbye?”
The weight of the world rests on my too-tiny, too-frail shoulders. “He won’t hear anything I say right now. He may never be ready to hear me.”
I can’t imagine how deep is pain must be. All those times he thought he wasn’t good enough. Now it seems as if his worst fears have been confirmed.
I wish he would let me in, that he would allow me to go through this with him. But he’s rejected me. He’s rejected my love, and I can’t wait. Nico will use this opportunity to take the crown.
I look to Roman and give him a resolute nod. All I can do at this point is stay focused on saving my kingdom. I can’t think about how the love of my life walked away from me.
Roman drives me to the airport in stony silence. I appreciate the fact that he doesn’t try to drag me into conversation.
As we near the airport, his vehicle makes a clunking noise, and I look to him. Guilt flickers across his features. “I guess, it backfired on me this time.”
“What do you mean?”
He doesn’t answer me. He mutters something about it would teach him to sabotage his own vehicle. Still, we manage to arrive at the airport safely, and it’s then I realize I have no money or means. I lost my return ticket in the rain with my luggage. As it is, I’m lucky to have my phone and passport.
“Don’t worry. I gotcha,” Roman reassures me when he realizes I don’t have the funds.
“I’ll repay you,” I promise. I saw how he regarded Rafe with such brotherly affection, the way it hurt him to disclose his past.
“Repay me by waiting for him. He loves you. Give him time to get his head on straight.” He gives me a brief hug. It’s over so quickly that I almost think I imagined it. Then he’s gone, melting into the crowd.
I take the ticket and board the commercial flight, knowing that my life as a commoner is officially over. I’ll never get to live like this again. Never get to feel Rafe’s arms around me.
As I leave American soil, I’m leaving half my heart behind. It amazes me that when I landed on this continent, all I could think about was the heavy feeling in the pit of my stomach. The knowledge that I was shackling myself to one man for the rest of my life. One man who might be cold and cruel. But I arrived and found him kind. He was compassionate. He was quiet and funny, and he made me feel like I mattered.
My heart has stopped beating. My blood no longer circulates. I can’t even draw in oxygen. There’s only the cold nothingness of having lost love.
When the plane touches down on Velkan soil, I am home and yet for the first time in my life, Velkan is not home. My home is Rafe.
Violet greets me with an uncharacteristically warm show of emotion, folding me into a hug. As I gaze into her eyes, it strikes me that she looks as if she’s aged thirty years. “Your father has passed on.”
It’s the first time she’s called him that instead of the king. I don’t know what to say to the news. I don’t know how to process this. He didn’t feel like my father. He was more of a stranger that I’d desperately hoped would one day grow to love me.
“I couldn’t convince Rafe to come with me.” My throat is raw like I’ve swallowed razor blades. “But if we can find another suitable groom…” The words are vile on my tongue. I will never love another man. Rafe was—he still is—my soulmate. Even if we are never together.