Helio’s POV
As I sat down for breakfast with my siblings, the remnants of a restless night still clung to me. I was irritated. I hadn’t gotten enough sleep, but for some reason, I’d felt more comfortable than I had in weeks when I’d climbed into my bed. The stifling heat that seemed to pour out of me at night made me never light the fire in my room, but I hadn’t even woken up sweating. Despite that, I was still f*****g irritated, and now I had to sit with my siblings at breakfast and pretend that I wasn’t.
Aiden, Brenton, and Kalinda chatted around the table. Our father and mother were absent, probably having breakfast with the visiting dignitaries.
“Where’s Conley?”
Aiden snorted. “He drew the short end of the relatable stick.”
I almost rolled my eyes. Why our father thought just walking around the village would help people relate to us, I had no idea. It certainly hadn’t done much more than get mud on my boots, dirty my sister’s dresses, and give my brothers reason to skip their lessons over the year, but he was the king, so none of us went against him. It had been a few weeks since I had last drawn the short stick. I imagined that he would start pushing me to go out again.
The thought only made my mood even worse.
What good was going out to make myself be seen if I had no power to do anything but flaunt our wealth? If anything, I pissed off people more than I made connections with them. How would Father know any of that? He had never gone out into the town just to walk around, at least to my knowledge.
“How long before he realizes that we’re not the Zephyrs?” Brenton asked. “Or the Topraks?”
I snorted and nudged him. “Don’t let him catch you saying that. You’ll be strung up by your ears.”
Brenton huffed. “Sure, but no one disagrees with me.”
How could anyone disagree? The servants didn’t tend to speak loudly, and neither did the townspeople, but Cole’s family heard gossip from here all the way to Winter Harvest. The Moon Goddess Ball had taken over the continent’s gossip chain with speculation about what would happen, but it hadn’t lasted long because there was so much more talk about how all the packs were doing in relation to one another.
I had no way of knowing if my father knew or if Drake was keeping that information from him, but public opinion of the Azer family was more or less negative amongst the townsfolk outside of the area directly around the castle, which only made a lot of his ridiculous demands feel more pointless.
I cut through the hunk of meat on my plate with a little growl of frustration. Today was going to be a shitty day.
“I can’t believe I didn’t find her,” Aiden hissed between his teeth.
“Maybe she ran,” Kalinda said with a pleasantly mean smile. “I’d run.”
Brenton scowled. “Shut up. It’s not like you made out any better.”
“I’d run from all of you, honestly,” Kalinda said. Then, addressing Brenton’s remark, she added, “And I wasn’t really looking.”
“All of Mother’s fussing about the ball, and all we got was a good meal and some entertainment.” Aiden snickered. “Though I suppose the entertainment more than made up for it in some ways.”
Brenton, always quick to chime in, leaned forward with a mischievous grin. “I was outside, so I missed it, but I heard about that worthless piece of s**t we call a cousin falling into the buffet table. Conley was pissed off that he missed it, but we got to see the end result. I don’t know how Prince Jack managed not to laugh at her, the way she looked with all that jam all over her.”
Aiden burst into laughter. “Not to mention the gravy. Hey, Kalinda, did you even get to eat?”
Kalinda scoffed. “I felt sorry for her. She just looked pathetic.”
For a moment, I thought maybe Kalinda meant it, but I’d never seen her show any mercy to our cousin either. I didn’t know what to say about Cindra being pushed into the table, so I went back to what Brenton had said before. “Prince Jack of Winter Haven?”
“One and the same. On his stupid high horse. Everyone knows she’s an i***t and a disgrace.” Brenton scoffed. “If he wasn’t older…”
“You’d still get your ass kicked,” Kalinda chimed in.
“Shut it,” Benton said. “I could’ve taken him. Besides, it was pretty clear he didn’t find his mate either. He probably just wanted to blow off some steam with her. She’s pathetic enough.”
I clenched my jaw. The fork in my hand started to glow. It was red hot, and my signet ring’s ruby flashed. I dropped the fork and leaned on the table.
Anger.
Why was I pissed that they were making fun of Cindra? Ordinarily, I would’ve joined in. Today, for some reason, it just seemed wrong.
I had been irritated all morning, and now I was literally burning up about what? About Cindra taking a tumble over the table? About her talking to another prince? Another man?
Wasn’t it enough that she was already Knox’s mate? Why talk to Jack at all?
To be fair, a large part of me hated Jack for a whole list of reasons that I couldn’t articulate. Knox’s list was a little more tangible, but the thought that she had been talking with Jack, maybe even finding comfort with him after the incident with Meri, pissed me off. And it was f*****g ridiculous. Why the hell did I care?
I didn’t care.
I don’t care.
I snarled at the thought and got up.
“You’re missing out on bacon?” Brenton asked.
“Not hungry.” I threw my napkin down and left the table.
My ring warming was a warning to me that I was probably about to ruin my clothes if I didn’t calm down. It had been a long time since I’d been so worked up. This had to be because of the ball. Maybe it was about my looming future with Kora, whatever that looked like.
I came to a stop in front of a large window and pushed it open, letting the cool breeze wash over me.
“So?”
I grimaced, recognizing Kalinda’s voice just behind me. “What?”
“Answer me this.”
“I’m not in the mood, Kalinda.”
“Helio ‘I eat my weight in meat at breakfast everyday’ Azer would be so troubled to not even have a bite of food. Why?”
I glared at her. Her red hair and green eyes made her a younger, spitting image of our mother, though I thought Kalinda was the prettier of the two. While she could be a brat, there wasn’t the bone-deep sense of malice in Kalinda that I sometimes saw in our mother. More than that, Kalinda always had a way of knowing way more than she should at any given moment.
“Should I guess?” She tilted her head. “I would never claim any of my brothers are completely sane, but you’ve been more off lately than usual.”
I hesitated. I couldn’t lie to her. Kalinda always knew, but I didn’t have a clear answer either, so I went with the easiest truth.
“It’s just this whole mate situation.” I turned back to the window. “I’m just not sure, that’s all. Kora is nice enough, but is she the right match for our kingdom?”
Kalinda, perceptive as ever, stepped in front of me, narrowing her eyes. “You’re still a bad liar, though you’ve gotten better.”
I huffed. “Kalinda, drop it, please.”
“No.”
“Brat.”
“I take my title seriously,” she quipped. “Considering Cindra’s situation.”
I went still, feeling it the moment she saw something more than I wanted her to see. “I said drop it. There’s nothing to consider.”
“I meant an alliance between people who nearly crumbled us into the earth is troublesome. What were you thinking about?”
She batted her eyelashes at me, a sweet smile pulling up the corners of her mouth. I hated it because she only used that look when she knew she had someone by the entrails. The shame was going to do me in right now. Kalinda was perceptive as hell, but who else had ever suspected something else behind my loathing?
“Shut up,” I snarled and stomped off, my ring burning bright like a torch on my hand and the scent of smoke trailing behind me.