I frowned, feeling my lip quiver as tears lined my eyes. “I…” A whimper left my throat. “Joslyn… Regina,” I said.
He sighed, looking down at the cold white tile. “We’ve let the queen go on for far too long. She has to be stopped.”
“With her flight gadgets and fire throwers, I don’t see how. Even with the elves. Did you see the horseless carts?”
He nodded. “Raife’s parents wanted to curb her technology, knowing her plans to one day wipe out the magical races. My father denied their request for help.”
I gasped. “And they tried and she killed them?”
He dipped his head. “Raife’s parents blew up one of her machine factories, and in turn the queen killed Raife’s entire family, leaving him alive as a mercy.”
Leaving him alive after killing his entire family was a mercy?
“Why didn’t you help him get revenge after she did that? It sounds like you two were close friends.”
Shame colored his cheeks. “I was a young prince. My father was afraid of the Nightfall queen and counseled against helping Raife.”
I nodded. “But winters later, when you became king, why did you still deny him?”
Drae looked pained at my question. “Because I’d just lost my own father, was getting married, and trying to have an heir. I didn’t know the first thing about invading a territory and starting a war. To be honest, the Nightfall queen scared me. What she did to the Lightstone family frightened me.”
It killed me to hear him sound so weak and vulnerable. “Does Raife know? That without an heir your magic is dead?”
He shook his head.
I sighed. I might be the backup but I was all he had, and I wasn’t going to leave him when he needed me.
“Fine, you can have my royal womb,” I quipped.
He stilled, going completely stiff. “Don’t joke like that. I want you with or without an heir.”
Now it was my turn to go completely still. “Drae, I know that you told the entire Royal Guard to stay away from me because I was your backup.”
He growled. “Who told you that?”
“Cal… when I kissed him,” I admitted.
His eyes flew wide. “You kissed Calston!”
“I was trying to get over you!” I punched him lightly in the chest. “But he wouldn’t have me. Said he couldn’t.”
He leaned closer to me and looked me right in the eyes. “I ordered the other men to stay away from you because the thought of you being with another man drove me insane.”
“Oh.” I sucked in a breath and he reached out, tracing his finger over my bottom lip. Shivers ran down my entire body and my eyes fluttered. “Ever since Amelia died, I’ve felt like I was drowning. Then you walked into my life… and now for the first time I feel like I can breathe.”
I gasped at the declaration. It was the nicest thing anyone had ever said to me.
“You’ve never been my backup, Arwen. You were always my first choice, ever since I saw you walking into town with that giant cougarin draped over your shoulders. I was fascinated with the beautiful and strong female hunter.”
Shock ran through me. He watched me bring my kill in?
He stepped closer. “I peeked into the kissing tent and saw you walking towards some other guy, your lips pursed and ready. Without thinking, I jumped in front of him and took what I wanted.”
I knew it was him! And the realization that he’d knowingly kissed me because he’d liked me even then, it made every brick I’d stacked around my heart crumble.
“Marry me, Arwen. Not because I need an heir but because somehow I’ve fallen in love with you and now I’m not sure that I can live without you.”
I sucked in a breath, and in response I reached out and grasped the back of his neck, pulling his lips to mine. The second his tongue entered my mouth, there was almost a painful release within my chest. Sometimes it ached to love someone, and that was true with Drae.
He pulled back, looking down at me with uncertainty. “Is that a yes?”
I grinned. “Yes. Does this mean you’re not going to kill me like my mother feared?”
He frowned. “Don’t even say such a thing.” He pulled up my hand and kissed each knuckle.
“Dr. Elsie said it wasn’t advisable for us to have children as there was no telling what our mixed magic would create,” I told him, trying to find something wrong with our union because it seemed too good to be true.
He peered down at me skeptically, no doubt wondering how I knew she’d said that, but I said nothing.