That my past and my future would intertwine so intricately, I would need to claw what I needed free in order to somehow keep it.

Dade continued his slow pacing along the wall lined with maps of Nodoya. “The queen of Wistensia is your mate, and you didn’t think to fucking say something?”

“I fail to see why I had to when it was nothing you needed to know.”

But that wasn’t entirely true.

“She is a queen,” Dade repeated.

My teeth met and gritted.

“And you were not even aware, were you?” He slammed his hands down on the table and snarled across it. “You merely wanted to gorge yourself on something that wasn’t yours to take.”

“She is mine.” I stabbed at my chest. “And like you can talk, king.”

He straightened, his eyes alight with cold, cruel fury. “Now is not the time to act like a rogue prick.”

A warning.

I ignored it. “Why did you bring them to my home?” He might have been left with little choice, but it was a betrayal all the same. “Why not make him wait here at the Keep until sunrise, and give me some fucking time to prepare?”

“So you could kill him and make matters worse?” Dade scoffed. “I think fucking not. When a king arrives on your doorstep in the middle of the stars-damned night, demanding for his wife to be found and returned to him, you do not dilly-fucking-dally.” He paused, laughing bitterly. “You find out what the fuck is going on and do whatever it takes to avoid another conflict we cannot afford.”

I leaned back against the wall, smirking. “So, to put it all simply, you betrayed me.”

“I did nothing of the sort.” Features twisting, Dade growled, “You betrayed me, and not just in this instance.”

Silence arrived like an axe poised at our throats.

We both stared, our chests heaving, waiting to see if the other would finally acknowledge the wedge that had sat between us since the day we’d met.

I decided to touch it at the very least, for he was wrong, but he was also right. “You know to speak on it would do none of us any good,” I said, low and careful. “None at all.”

“And keeping quiet about it for all these years has served you so very well,” he fired back smoothly. “Look at you now. Without a mate, without a name, and without a legion to commandeer.”

Another blow to my already ravaged chest. Between my teeth, I said, “You cannot take them from me.”

“But I can.” I waited for the softly delivered threat. “For if you fuck this up any more than you already have, you leave me with no choice but to discharge you.”

The dishonor of being discharged from service for anything other than disability was rare. As it was a humiliation most did not survive.