Chapter 214: A Promise To Keep

Elara:

Reign Valemont just kissed me.

Worse, I had kissed him back. Enthusiastically. With my arms around his neck and my fingers tangled in his hair. I had voluntarily participated in the very activity my sensible mind had been insisting I should avoid at all costs.

I had kissed my biggest nemesis, the man who had taken it upon himself to make my life miserable, trapped me against a tree just minutes ago, and then apparently decided that making out with me was a perfectly reasonable way to demonstrate the importance of magical awareness during combat.

I sat there in stunned silence, staring at him as though I might discover an explanation written somewhere across his infuriatingly handsome face.

He looked down at me for another moment, then tilted his head, and that familiar smirk returned in full force. "Well," he drawled, "I hope I have managed to change your opinion of my mouth, Trouble."

My jaw nearly dropped. That was what he had to say? After kissing me like his entire existence depended on it, after making my knees so weak that I had literally collapsed when he stepped away, he was going to stand there and make a joke?

I opened my mouth, but nothing came out.

He seemed to find my speechlessness immensely entertaining. "I’ll see you soon, Argentis."

And with that, Reign Valemont turned and walked away, leaving me on the cold, snowy ground without so much as a backward glance.

I remained exactly where I was, watching his retreating back until the trees swallowed him from view. I couldn’t understand what had happened, why it had happened, or how a morning that had begun with a perfectly ordinary run had somehow ended with me kissing the one man I had repeatedly sworn I would never allow to get under my skin.

I touched my lips with trembling fingers, then immediately dropped my hand as though the gesture itself were incriminating.

No. Absolutely not. I was not going to sit here thinking about how good it had felt, how easily I had forgotten every reason to hate him, or how the warmth of his arms had made the rest of the world disappear.

I was going to get up, return to the palace, take the longest shower of my life, and pretend this entire incident had never happened. And then, once I had recovered every last fragment of my dignity, I was going to make Reign Valemont regret the day he had decided to turn my morning run into his personal entertainment.

Because if there was one thing I had learned during my time in Starfall, it was that I could survive betrayal, political manipulation, and even the occasional magical catastrophe. But I would not survive being the punchline of Reign Valemont’s latest joke without making him suffer for it.

I slowly rose to my feet, brushed the snow from my clothes, and glared at the empty path where he had disappeared.

"Enjoy your victory while you can, you arrogant, infuriating, ridiculously handsome bastard," I muttered, my cheeks burning all over again. "Because I’m going to make your life a living hell."

And judging by the way my heart was still racing, I had a terrible feeling that I was going to have to work very, very hard to keep that promise.

* * *

Alaric:

I had been searching for Kairo for nearly six hours when I finally found him in a hotel room that looked as though a natural disaster had occurred inside it.

Dozens of empty bottles littered the floor, several overturned glasses lay scattered near the sofa, and the curtains were drawn so tightly that the room had become a dark, airless cave. The smell of alcohol hit me the moment I stepped inside, making me wrinkle my nose as I searched the mess for my missing friend, and it took me a few seconds to find him.

Kairo was sprawled on the floor beside the bed, one arm hanging awkwardly over the edge of the mattress, his hair a tangled mess and his shirt so badly crumpled that I couldn’t tell whether he had slept in it or simply fallen into it. His face was pale, dark shadows had settled beneath his gray eyes, and even in his drunken stupor, the tension carved into his features was impossible to miss.

For several seconds, I stood in the doorway, staring at him in silence. I had expected to find him drinking. I had expected him to be miserable. Considering what I suspected had happened between him and Elara at the welcoming party six days ago, I had even expected him to be in a particularly foul mood. But this? This was something else entirely.

I had known Kairo for almost my entire life. I had seen him furious, heartbroken, reckless, and drunk enough to forget his own name. I had watched him laugh in the face of danger and walk away from situations that would have made most people question their sanity. But I had never seen him look so completely broken. Not once.

"Bloody hell, Kairo." I shut the door behind me and stepped over a bottle, trying to find a clear path through the wreckage. "Your mother has called me so many times that I’m beginning to suspect she thinks I kidnapped you. Reign has also been looking for you, and we have spent the better part of the day trying every possible way to track you down. Do you have any idea how difficult it is to find someone who owns half the luxury boutiques in the realm and apparently thinks disappearing into a hotel room is a reasonable response to having feelings?"

Kairo didn’t move. I crouched beside him and nudged his shoulder. Nothing. I tried again, this time harder, and received nothing more than an incoherent sound that might have been a curse.

I sighed, reached into my jacket pocket, and pulled out a small vial of hangover potion. I had brought it along because I had a fairly accurate idea of what condition I might find him in, and I was beginning to think that bringing the entire bottle would have been the wiser decision.

"Come on, you miserable bastard. Open your mouth."

His response was to turn his head away.

"Oh, absolutely not. You don’t get to be difficult after making all of us worry for past several days." I caught his jaw, forced his mouth open, and tipped the potion down his throat before he could protest.

He immediately coughed, tried to shove my hand away, and glared at me with the kind of murderous hatred usually reserved for people who had committed unforgivable crimes. I smiled sweetly. "There you are. I was beginning to worry you had died and left me with the unpleasant task of explaining your stupidity to your mother."