She looked like a vengeful angel when she stormed into my room at seven in the morning. I hadn’t even gotten out of bed and was startled to hear my door fly open and Jayde walk in. In a word, she looked murderous.
“You attempted to assassinate Kohl while I was here.” She snapped. I bolted upright in bed. What the hell was she talking about?
“Jayde, what’s going on?” I said sitting up in my bed. She stomped towards me, her eyes were red and her smooth complexion was blemished with anger spots. She fell onto my bed and slapped me. This was getting old. Twice she had struck me. This was not a pattern I wanted to continue. I was doing well keeping my anger in check. She was making it impossible at the moment. “Jayde, calm down and explain to me what is going on?” I said lacing my words with magic.
Her shoulders sagged and she collapsed beside me and began to cry...no sob. She wrapped her arms around herself and cried for several minutes before she spoke again.
“I made a terrible mistake.” She sobbed. I ran a hand down her arm and attempted to get her to look at me, but she refused. “I either made the awful mistake of trusting anything you said or I made the terrible mistake of being lenient on Antonio. I almost cost Kohl his life.” Someone had tried to kill Kohl? That is all I had gotten out of her.
“How is it your fault? I don’t get it. You’re not making much sense, Jayde.” She turned around and sat up her face only inches from mine.
I remembered the first time I had gotten this close to her and she had pushed me away. I wasn’t ready to be rejected again. “Did you send Antonio to kill Kohl?” I stared at her utterly stunned by her accusation. Did she really think after all the changes I made for her I would resort to murder to win this war? I still wanted a challenge what did she take me for?
I glared at her as she glared right back at me. “Tell me.” She insisted.
“I did not send Antonio to kill Kohl. I sent him as I promised you I would.”
“The beating he took really showed how much you cared about keeping your word.” She snidely replied.
“That is what happens when you are in prison for treason. I sent him there without harming one extra hair on his head, because that ass was my gift to you. If you wanted spiteful I could have sent you a body, but I kept my word to you.” I countered feeling my blood pressure rise at her cold accusations. “I even forced him to remember a message for me. He was to give it to you when he first saw you.”
Her green eyes didn’t lose their edge as she waited for me to continue. “He was supposed to tell you I surrender for you. The end to the war you wanted. I was giving it to you.” I didn’t mean for the acidity to seep into my tone, but there it was. I had tried to be selfless and postpone the war before we pressured Jayde to decide if she wanted to marry either of us and it blew up in my face.
Her face softened for an instant. “Antonio tried to kill Kohl. I should have left him rotting away wherever you had him.” She was still visibly angry, but seemed to have redirected her anger from me.
“Do you believe me?” I asked still wondering where her thoughts were.
“Kohl told me that Antonio had relayed a message for me. That was it. I believe you.” I stared at her not sure if I should be furious that she was testing me or relieved that she believed me. I settled in the middle.
“Glad I could be trusted.” I replied letting the venom sink into each word. Her eyes widened as she realized what she had done.
“You wanted to end the war?” She asked instead.
“I just didn’t want you to have to choose so quickly. I thought if I told you I’d keep the treaty for as long as you needed to decide I would, even if it meant years.” Again her sweet face seemed to soften. The hard edges of anger melted away and she looked out the window to the far side of my room.
“Antonio attempted to kill Kohl, claiming it was because he loved me. I want to believe you, Sy, please don’t let me be wrong twice.” She said her face pleading with me to be honest.
I sat up again getting within inches of her face. It was a slow torture having her in my bed and not even touching her. She was meant to drive me insane. I was sure of it. “I would never do anything like that Jayde. If I wanted Kohl dead, I had two years to do it. I haven’t. As much as Kohl wants to make me the bad guy, I have never hurt him. I have followed the treaty just as meticulously as he has. I promised to be honest with you and I have not lied. It is your turn to trust me.” I challenged. I had told her I would be honest. What more did she want from me? Even though it was literally killing me to spill so many dark secrets to her. I had because she wanted to get to know me. I had fought this war and I wanted to win. If it meant opening up to the girl I planned to marry then so be it.
“Do you care at all about me?” She asked looking up at me with those big emerald eyes, framed in long, dark lashes. She was making it so damn hard not to touch her.
“If I didn’t care about you why would I even agree to a treaty.” She nodded mauling over my words.
“I trust you, Sy. I’m not sure why, but something tells me I can.” Her eyes watched me closely like a human lie detector. “You have either changed since the last time I met you or were you hiding during our first meeting? Don’t change again. I like this Sy better. I’m sorry about bursting in here.” She said looking around for the first time and realizing she was in my bed. She slid off the edge of the bed and stood. “Forgive me for any intrusion.” She said with a weak smile and left.
I sat in bed processing everything that had happened. One thing was for sure, Antonio’s days were numbered if he thought that Kohl was letting him get away with almost killing him. That execution I had stopped for Jayde was imminent no one could beat the idiot out of Antonio. He would always be the arrogant ass I knew he was when I met him.
I fell into bed hoping to get a little more sleep before the day began. My thoughts refused to go anywhere but to Jayde. I had never felt like this before. No one had ever consumed my thoughts more then myself. No one had ever openly challenged me the way she did. She saw right through my games and hit me where it hurt. Even when she was casually asking questions she was chipping away at my armor.
I had never told anyone about my mother and brother. Even Reggie didn’t know how they passed. A rogue bombing that no one could quite pinpoint, but was later found to be the work of the Uprising. My father blamed it on Kohl’s father but he had never admitted to it. We had been in a short period of peace that had been disrupted by this bombing. That bombing was the reason no treaty ever worked again. My father never trusted anyone after my mother’s death. He wanted them to pay. Within months, Kohl’s parents and Jayde’s parents were gone thanks to my father. He had lost all his mercy with her death. I took a deep breath. I wasn’t him. I could let go of my anger and move on. I needed to if I ever wanted to have a chance with Jayde. If I ever wanted a chance to be happy and not as miserable and angry as my father.
My anger seemed to dissolve the more I processed what I had been doing. Why had I never thought about it before? Why had I never stopped and realized I had no reason to fight. My dad had made his point. He killed everyone for my mother. Was more death really the answer? I had allowed thousands of soldiers to get killed because I was selfish, just like my father.
I had never thought of myself as selfish until I had met Jayde. She called me selfish and the words stuck. She called me cold and I believed her. She called me things people were too afraid to admit to me. How I could ever be good enough for her after all the terrible things I had done, it seemed daunting but I wanted it. Something about that girl made me want to fight something bigger than the war in Encante.
I made my way out of bed and prepared for the day my thoughts echoing that I only had two more days to make Jayde realize I was the one she wanted.
I sauntered into the breakfast room to see Jayde already there. She had gotten ready and was making light conversation with the servants. I didn’t do i
t, but I had also been raised to be a king. Some habits didn’t go away just because I found out my heart wasn’t the black hole I assumed it was.
“Good morning, Sy.” Jayde said with a bright smile. “I hope you are planning to top yesterday because you might have spoiled me.” She was teasing but I still stared at her suddenly worried that what I had planned wasn’t good enough.
Insecurity it was not an emotion I wanted to experience ever again.