Chapter 44
Aeliana had been expecting hostility, but not this.
The noble standing before her was tall, his silver armor gleaming beneath the dim glow of the palace torches. His features were sharp, almost elegant by the standards of Tharx's people, his violet eyes assessing her with a cool, calculating interest.
Lord Kaelrith.
A warrior of high rank. Respected. Feared. Dangerous in the way that all men who knew their own power were.
His proposal had been delivered so casually, as if the weight of it would not send her world tilting sideways.
"Marry me," Kaelrith said simply.
Aeliana blinked, unsure if she had misheard. "Excuse me?"
Kaelrith smiled slightly, tilting his head. "It is a logical arrangement, is it not? You remain within the empire, securing a stable position for yourself. And the king-" He glanced toward the throne room doors, where Tharx had disappeared moments ago. "He maintains his authority without the complications your presence brings."
Aeliana's fingers curled into fists.
Of course.
This wasn't about her.
This was about removing her from Tharx's side while still keeping her contained-placing her neatly into a position where she could no longer be a threat.
Kaelrith stepped closer, voice smooth. "You are vulnerable here, Aeliana. Your life has been threatened, your very presence resented. Marrying into a noble house would-"
"Would what?" she cut in, voice sharp. "Give me protection? Keep me in a gilded cage of someone else's choosing?"
Kaelrith's expression remained impassive, but his eyes flickered with something unreadable. "It would give you power. A position of influence that is yours alone, not something borrowed from the king's favor."
The words struck a nerve.
Aeliana took a slow breath, forcing herself to keep her voice steady. "And what would you gain from this, Lord Kaelrith?"
His smile didn't falter. "A wife who commands attention. A strategic bond that solidifies my standing." His gaze flickered over her, assessing. "You are valuable, Aeliana. That is why they hate you. Why they fear you."
She hated that he was right.
But she hated even more that some part of her considered it.
For a moment, she imagined it. A court without whispers. A place where she was not a trespasser in her own skin. A life where she wasn't constantly fighting just to exist.
Kaelrith sensed the hesitation, stepping even closer. "Think about it."
Then he left her standing there, shaken and furious with herself.
Aeliana found Tharx in his private chambers, because of course she did.
She hadn't even realized she had been marching toward him until she was already pushing open the doors, already stepping into the dim, firelit space.
Tharx stood by the massive stone table near the balcony, his broad shoulders rigid, his golden gaze distant. He didn't turn to acknowledge her, but she knew-he knew why she was here.
"I assume you've heard," she said, forcing her voice to remain even.
Silence.
Tharx remained motionless, his expression unreadable. "I have."
Aeliana let out a sharp, humorless laugh. "And that's it? No reaction?"
Still, nothing.
She strode forward, closing the distance between them. "Kaelrith proposed marriage to me, Tharx. He wants to claim me as his wife, as his bargaining piece." She waited for something-a flicker of emotion, an argument, anything.
Instead, Tharx's voice remained dangerously quiet. "It would be a secure position."
Her stomach twisted.
She had been angry before, furious even, but this-this was something else.
She let out a sharp breath, stepping closer. "So that's it, then?" she asked, voice laced with something raw. "You won't fight it? You won't stop it?"
Tharx's jaw tightened, but his expression remained a mask of control. "It would remove you from danger."
Aeliana let out a soft, disbelieving laugh. "You mean it would remove me from your path."
She watched him carefully, searching for any sign of hesitation, any crack in his carefully crafted armor. And then-she saw it.
It was brief. A flicker of something dark and unreadable in his golden eyes.
He didn't want this.
But he wouldn't say it.
Aeliana's blood burned. "Do you want me to leave?" she demanded, stepping closer, close enough that she had to tilt her chin up to hold his gaze.
Tharx's eyes locked onto hers, unblinking. "You belong here."
Her breath caught.
He had said those words before, but this time they felt different.
He wasn't saying she belonged in the empire. He wasn't saying she belonged in court.
He was saying she belonged here. With him.
Aeliana's pulse pounded. She was too close now, close enough to feel the heat radiating from him, close enough that she could see the tension in his jaw, the way his fingers flexed slightly, as if resisting the urge to move.
Her voice was quieter now, but no less sharp. "Then why won't you say it?"
Tharx's jaw clenched. "Say what?"
"That you don't want me to marry him."
The silence stretched between them, heavy and charged.
And then, slowly-too slowly-Tharx exhaled, his voice dropping to something almost dangerous.
"I decide who holds power in my empire," he murmured, his golden eyes burning into hers. "And you are not to be touched."
Aeliana's breath hitched.
That was not an answer.
That was a claim.
The space between them had all but disappeared, the tension a living thing wrapping around them like a vice.
She could feel his restraint, the barely controlled force of it-as if something inside him was breaking apart, something he refused to name.
But he wouldn't give her more.
He never did.
Aeliana's throat tightened, but she forced herself to smile-a sharp, knowing thing.
"Then you'd better act like it," she whispered.
Then she turned, leaving him standing there, silent and seething, his hands clenched into fists at his sides.
And as she stepped into the hall, heart pounding, she knew-
This wasn't over.