Total pages in book: 230
Estimated words: 217798 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1089(@200wpm)___ 871(@250wpm)___ 726(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 217798 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1089(@200wpm)___ 871(@250wpm)___ 726(@300wpm)
“I’m not playing anything. It’s just the way it is.” Caden turned from me, shoving a hand over his head, through his hair. “It’s the way it needs to be. You’re human and I’m—”
“I know what you are.” My heart pounded in my chest as I folded my arms across my stomach. “I’ve always known what you are.”
“Then you should know,” he said.
“No, I don’t. You just kissed—”
“I know I kissed you and that was—that was a stupid mistake.”
“A mistake?” I whispered.
“Things have changed.” His voice hardened now. “I don’t want things to be uncomfortable between us. We need to work together. You need to put this behind us. I already have.”
The hole in my chest cracked my heart as I stumbled back from him. I knew it shouldn’t matter. I was just acknowledging that I had feelings for him—how deep those feelings ran, I didn’t know—but there was a hole opening up in my chest.
There was no denying he meant what he said. I heard it in his voice. I saw it in his face, and I had no idea how I’d misread things with him so badly. How I could’ve been so damn foolish to think there was more to what was between us.
Humiliation festered to life, settling into my bones and spreading like a fever, flushing my skin.
Caden—no, he wasn’t Caden to me anymore. He was just the Prince, and he must’ve sensed the sharp, bitter swirl of emotions churning through me, because he stepped toward me.
“Brighton—”
“I get it.” I cut him off as I stepped to the side. “Message received.”
“I’m—”
“Don’t apologize. God, please don’t apologize. That’s….” When his face began to blur I knew I needed to get out of this room. I would not lose it in front of him. I would not cry over what could have been when there was apparently nothing in the first place. “You said… you said you wouldn’t hurt me. You lied.”
He drew back as if I’d hit him.
“I need to go,” I said.
And I did.
Ivy and Ren would’ve been here by now, waiting for us in the main common area, and I just… I just needed to get the hell out of this room.
Giving him a wide berth, I skirted around the chairs and made a beeline for the door. I made it and I made it out into the empty hallway knowing that the Prince could’ve stopped me at any moment.
But he hadn’t.
He’d chosen not to.
Acknowledging that hollowed out my chest, and I walked to the common area in a daze, focused only on breathing around the burn in my throat.
Hands shaking, I kept them fisted tight as I picked up my pace, reaching the main hall. There were fae everywhere. They spilled out from the common area, their eyes wide and the hum of excitement charged the room.
I had no idea what was going on as I scanned the unfamiliar faces. There was a shock of red hair toward the back. Ivy. She and Ren were here, which meant that was probably where Tink was. Concentrating only on getting to them, I didn’t notice the first fae to drop to their knee before me.
But then they went down in a wave, one after the other, dropping to their knees and bowing deeply, placing their right hands on the floor. All of them went down until I could see Ivy standing near the entrance to the common room and beside her was Ren. Both looked surprised as I felt.
Neither of them looked as shocked as Prince Fabian, though, which was saying something because both Ren and Ivy looked about as confused as I felt.
Prince Fabian’s long blond hair was pulled back, revealing just how pale his face was as his lips moved wordlessly.
Then he dropped to his right knee and placed his right hand onto the floor.
“What the hell?” I whispered, turning around slowly, knowing they weren’t bowing for me, because duh.
Things are different now.
I saw him in the hall I’d just hurried out of, the edges of his blond hair brushing those wide shoulders and those odd amber eyes were not on the fae who were bowing to him but on me.
“Oh my God,” I whispered as Tink’s words from the night the Prince was wounded came back to me in a rush. If he dies, then Fabian becomes King and he… he can’t be King.
Did that mean…?
He closed his eyes and a reddish-yellow glow appeared, just like it had before, as if there was a halo of light behind him. There was no flaming sword this time when the glow receded.
Instead there was a burnt gold crown atop his head.
Caden was no longer the Prince.
He was the King.
ARRANGED
A MASTERS AND MERCENARIES NOVELLA
By Lexi Blake
PROLOGUE
Fifteen Years Before
Oxford, England
Kashmir Kamdar lay back on the blanket, his face to the sun. He loved England, genuinely adored the years he’d spent here, but sometimes he missed the sun of Loa Mali. It could be so dark here, but on a day like this, he found his way to one of the parks and let the sun soak into his skin and he felt the connection to his island home.