I took a step back, suddenly desperate to put more space between us, and Raihn matched it forward. His gaze was steady and unblinking—as inescapable as if he’d grabbed me and pinned me to the wall.
“I made you an offer,” he murmured. “The night we—”
A stutter to his voice. I heard what he didn’t say: The night we were married.
Neither of us ever acknowledged that. Our marriage.
“I made you an offer that night. And it still stands. It always will.”
Another step back. Another step closer.
“I hate this place.” He exhaled the words, ragged, like he’d torn them from deep in his chest. “I hate these people. I hate this castle. I hate this fucking crown. But I don’t hate you, Oraya. Not even a little.” His face softened, and I so wanted to tear my eyes away and didn’t. “I failed you. I know that. I’m probably still—” He shook his head a little, as if to shut himself up. “But you and I are the same. There is no one I would rather have help me build a new version of this kingdom. And honestly, I… I don’t know if I can do it without you.”
I finally allowed my gaze to fall from Raihn’s face. Allowed it to drift down, to the desk between us, scattered with Vincent’s notes and plans. Raihn now leaned over that desk, his palms pressed down on those papers. All evidence of my father’s kingdom and how much he had loved it.
My father’s kingdom. My kingdom.
The faint pulse of my Heir Mark over my throat and chest burned stronger now. Itched, like an acid bite.
At least that will get some of them out of our way, Raihn had said, so fucking casually, when talking about the people who now relied on me.
“You don’t want a Hiaj’s help,” I spat. “You’re too busy killing all of us.”
“Us?” Raihn’s scoff was immediate, vicious, like he couldn’t even stop himself. “When the hell did it become ‘us?’ They never treated you like you were one of them. They treated people like you like fucking livestock. They disrespected you, they—”
“You killed my father!”
The words burst out of me. The accusation, the ugly truth, had been pressing up beneath the underside of my skin for weeks. Every time I looked at Raihn, they screamed in my ears. All those accusations: You killed my father, you lied to me, you used me.
YOU.
KILLED.
MY.
FATHER.
They drowned out every word he said to me.
They silenced him immediately, and then hung there between us, palpable and cutting as razor blades.
“You. Killed. My. Father.”
I didn’t even realize I was speaking aloud this time, the words scraping from between my clenched teeth.
With each word, I relived it—Raihn’s magic flaring as he pinned Vincent to the wall. Vincent’s body falling, nothing more than a pile of broken flesh.
Silvery smoke unfurled around my clenched fists. My shoulders rose and fell heavily. My chest hurt—Goddess, my chest hurt so, so much. I’d let out too much and now I struggled to wrangle it all back under control.
For a long, horrible, silent moment I was so sure I was going to fall apart. Raihn at last moved around that desk, approaching me slowly, watching me so steadily I could feel it even when I squeezed my eyes shut.
Like he was waiting. Like he was ready.
“I am so sorry, Oraya,” he murmured. “I’m just—I’m so sorry that it all happened this way. I’m so sorry.”
The worst part was, I couldn’t even doubt that he meant it.
Sorry. I remembered the first time Raihn had apologized to me, plainly, like it had been a simple truth, and how it had meant so much to me that it rearranged my entire world a little to hear it spoken that way. I’d felt like I’d been given a gift I had been waiting so long for—for someone to validate my feelings that way, to concede to me even at the expense of their own pride.
I’d been so desperate to hear those words from my father.
I’d finally gotten them in his final breaths. I love you. I’m sorry.
And did they change anything? Did they mean anything, in the end? What fucking good did a few words do?
I opened my eyes and met Raihn’s. His face was so starkly honest, so raw, that it startled me. I could see that he was opening a door for me, coaxing me through. Ready to take my hand and guide me there.
“But you’d do it again,” I said.
I slammed that door shut.
He flinched.
“I am trying to save so many lives,” he said.
Helplessly. Like he didn’t know what else to tell me.