His bitter words echoed through my mind as I tried to push all of it away from me.

Not even my yearning heart can trick me into believing you would abandon your beloved family for the poor comfort of my scaled arms.

I crunched my face up, my jaw clenching. He had submitted to torture for the mere hope that I might look at him and be proud of him. He had kissed me not merely for physical enjoyment, but because every part of him was aligned in the sort of love that would last until the sun died, and he longed to be loved in return.

So what was holding me back?

39. Confrontation

Chapter 39

Confrontation

Dain avoided me with remarkable fortitude for the next eighteen days. I guessed that he was trying to run out the clock, rather than having to look into my face and see whatever he would find there. I didn't know if the soulmate bond stopped working after a year and a day, but tradition would treat us as independent people again, and his promise would no longer bind me here. Nobody would have any interest in killing me anymore, either, since theoretically I'd just be some random human again. I'd be safe, he wouldn't have to face the knowledge of what was in my eyes, two miserable soulmates in two different worlds.

He got called out on emergencies to deal with rampaging beasts, managed to get himself put into quarantine for eight days after chasing some monster or other into a diseased swamp, and got into a screaming match with Zhiolas on the same day our friend returned from the border. That particular display convinced the Queen to make him go on a three-day patrol to cool off. It was pretty inspired, honestly, even though I hated that he had done it. I wondered what he'd traded Zhiolas to convince him to go along with it. Zhiolas certainly looked contemplative when I saw him the next evening, though he didn't mention what had happened.

If it hadn't been for the tumultuous emotions surrounding everything, it would have been entertaining at first, approaching comical. The two times I managed to get within striking distance of my prince those first few days, he fled without making eye contact, or even saying goodbye to the person he'd been talking to. He wheeled and booked it mid-sentence the second time, leaving Lord Keljyre looking both relieved and mystified.

If he'd chosen to avoid me from the beginning, I would have been all-in on making myself scarce. Bummer for him. I'd seen far too much of the man he was, been through way too much alongside him, and spent too long agonizing over him to let Dain unilaterally avoid me until the rest of our time passed.

I decided to break into his bedroom.