It’s only been a little over two hours since Kofu said they were leaving but I suppose if they used portals to travel it’d make sense that they are already back.
Pushing the thought from my mind, I move over to my throne and take a seat in the uncomfortable chair, angling my body toward the others.
“Aphaedra,” my father says, his voice booming, “I understand that you are causing issues with the other women of the court.”
Great. Another one of these conversations where I’m the villain.
“No,” I say, keeping my voice steady and even. “The other women pick at me and I let them, like you always tell me to.” Don’t embarrass me or this family with your childish affairs.
“That’s not what I heard,” Lainey interjects, her gaze cutting across to me.
“Of course, because Fatima is one of your loyal subjects.” Even those words are a bit much considering how spineless my father prefers for me to act.
“I will only tell you once more, do not embarrass this family and that goes for your husband too.”
My brows crinkle at that. While I may be troublesome in my father’s eyes, he’s never had a problem with Kofu as long as he sticks to the shadows of being a guard.
“Excuse me?”
I’m surprised when my brother is the one to lean forward and look at me. His grey gaze is cold and steely as his eyes lock with mine. “Yes, father is right, your husband has been sticking his nose where it does not belong and you should speak with him about it.” The words are simple but the warning is clear.
What in the hell happened with Kofu to piss my brother off?
Chapter Six
My father doesn’t keep me long after the warning from him and my brother. On my way out of the throne room, I pass by Diana. I try to meet her eyes, as the two warnings I now have whirl through my mind, but she avoids my gaze.
Magnus and Gerald follow me to my chambers and bid me a good evening once we get to the doors, since the day has already quickly gone by.
When I walk into our room, Kofu isn’t there which is odd, since I didn’t see him with the rest of my brother’s guard in the throne room. With a frown, I decide to wait up for him and quickly wash up, pulling on a silk nightgown.
After an hour, he still isn’t back and I get under the covers, grabbing a book from my nightstand to read over as I wait.
The words all blend together, and I can’t remember what I read the second my eyes move to the next sentence and soon I find my eyes drifting closed.
When the door to the bedroom opens with a thud and I jump, I realize I’ve drifted off to sleep. I’m just barely able to make out the silhouette of Kofu as he tries to silently enter our room.
“Where have you been?” I ask, my words strained with sleep.
Kofu pauses and the door to the room closes. “Don’t worry about it, my love.” His voice is low and gentle but there’s still something off with his words.
“Kofu-”
“Shh.” He wanders over to the bed and in the dark of the night, I can’t make out any of his features. He slides under the covers next to me and the usual scent of berries that seems to stick to his skin washes over me along with the not so nice smell of something metallic.
“Kofu-”
“Not tonight,” he cuts me off again. The heat of his body against mine is slightly comforting as he wraps his arms around me and pulls me close, but I can still tell that something is wrong.
There’s a slight dampness to his shirt and when I move to turn on the lamp to see better, he holds me tighter, refusing to let me go. “Rest Aphaedra, we will talk in the morning.”
The meeting in the throne room pushes to the forefront of my mind along with Diana’s warning. “Does this have something to do with my brother?”
Silence.
His chest moves against my back as he lets out a deep sigh. “We will talk in the morning,” he repeats and one of his hands moves to stroke my jaw. “For now, just rest, please.” The last word is a plea.
“Fine.” I can tell that whatever is going on is really worrying him and if he says we’ll discuss it in the morning, then we will. For now, I’ll let it go. “Goodnight. I love you.”
“I love you too.” A soft kiss to my forehead is all I remember before I’m dozing back off.
I wake to the sound of something hitting the floor and sunlight radiating into the room. I place a hand over my eyes, trying to block out the light before letting out a groan as another thud goes through the room.
I rub at my eyes and when I open them, I find Kofu at our closet with bags in his hand. I watch as he shoves an assortment of my pants into one of the bags before dropping it on the ground next to two other full bags.
Alert, I throw the covers off. “Kofu, what are you doing?” I question as I move over to him.
His back is to me and he tenses when he hears me moving toward him. “We need to leave, Aphaedra.”
“What?” Maybe I’m still half asleep and didn’t hear him right.
“We need to leave Daerel,” he says and this time I know it's no mistake.
I heard him right.
“But why?” I question. I’m a princess, as much as the role is almost non-existent at this point, he knows I can’t just leave.
At least not yet.
I need more time to gain control of my powers.
“We’re in danger here. It’s not safe for us,” his words are low and he quickly returns to packing the bags.
When I look out the window and see that the sun is still quite low, I
