The Broken: A Dark Fantasy Romance by Zelie Cole

Author:Zelie Cole [Cole, Zelie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-06-13T16:00:00+00:00

52

Cursa Dram

It was late, almost dark, when Cursa Dram finally located his wife. She should have been in bed, in the keep, where it was safe. Instead, she sat inside the cottage alone, by candlelight, staring into a hearth with no fire inside it. She didn’t even bother to turn her head when he passed through the door. “I have been looking for you,” he said, calmly as he could.

“Have you?” the queen returned absently.

“Yes, of course I have. No one knew where you went; no one had seen you for hours. Why would you just run off like that?”

“I didn’t run anywhere. You said you meant for me to come here when I wished.”

“Yes, but I had generally hoped you would bring me with you, or—devils, just tell someone where you were going, at least.”

“Well. I didn’t.”

Cursa Dram tried to get a reign on his anger and couldn’t, quite. She was being so damned cold about it. He moved to stand in front of her. “Isobel. Do you have any idea of the panic you put me in? I have thought of nothing, for the past hour, except every single horrible thing that could have happened to you. I did not know if you had slipped on the rocks by the stream and finally broken your foolish little neck. I didn’t know if someone had taken you, a baron, or a mercenary, to some place I couldn’t hope to discover. I even accused Thrache of carting you off. I kept waiting, every moment, every corner I turned, to find your lifeless fucking corpse at my feet. And now that I have found you, alive, you have the nerve to treat me with contempt? Why, Izzy? I want to know why. Are you punishing me for something? What have I done?”

“You have done nothing,” she answered. “Not to me.”

Cursa Dram sighed. What had he expected? It had never been likely that marrying her was going to make her less intractable. “Look, I realize I lost my temper this morning. I know that I was barking at everyone, and telling them how things were going to go … but you know, don’t you, that I’m not trying to tell you what to do? They all say I’m the king now, but I don’t see it that way. I never will. To me, you’re the queen, and I’m still just … your subject. I know I can’t stop you; I’ve never been able to stop you doing anything, even before you were queen. Just please, try to understand what it does to me to think of you going back there—to think of either of us being back there. One day, I know you’ll have to, but I’m just not ready for it, not yet.”

Isobel’s eyes betrayed a sorrow he knew he could never make whole. “I know. I know all that. And I would never hold it against you, just as I will never condemn you, Cursa Dram, for being what you are.

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