Sold To The Cruel Pr Chapter 67: Feeling Alone

Chapter 67: Feeling Alone

The knights kept glancing at Kael.

They all knew how much that lady ant to their prince. Theron had been doing things none of them had ever expected of him, waiting, searching, bending his own habits and temper around a woman who had sohow beco central to all of it.

And now they were leaving.

Without her.

One of the senior knights finally stepped closer to Kael, his voice lowered with genuine concern. "How will that little woman survive this forest?"

Kael swallowed.

That, he thought bitterly, was not the right question.

The question was how they were supposed to survive without her.

Since Aveline had entered Theron’s life, the prince had been almost... relaxed. Less sharp-edged, less impossible to endure. She had taken up so much of his attention, so much of his ti, that the rest of them had, for once, been allowed to breathe.

Now, the thought of what would happen when he grew bored again made Kael’s stomach sink.

He could already imagine the cold focus returning in full force.

Lady Aveline had occupied the prince’s heart so thoroughly that she had, in a strange way, given them peace.

And now she was gone.

Another knight muttered under his breath, almost jokingly, "And will the forest survive her?"

It was a fair question.

They had all noticed how much patience their prince had sohow managed to cultivate since her arrival. They had seen him muttering under his breath, kicking at stones, pausing as though he were trying to recover from whatever nonsense she had said to him five minutes earlier.

They had no idea how one woman could so thoroughly rile him up and still make him return to her every single ti.

But that was the point, wasn’t it?

A woman who could make their prince act like that could not possibly be ordinary.

Kael almost laughed.

Almost.

Because, truly, that was a very fair question.

And Kael had a feeling.

The Prince would not leave without Lady Aveline. Judging by everything... he couldn’t live without her. It complicated everything, but that didn’t an it wasn’t the truth.

He let out a deep breath. He was glad his sister was not chosen as the princess consort. Maybe... the Caelvaris family deserved it for acting all high and mighty.

He rembered that woman... the snobby woman with that despicable smile and an attitude that made him vomit...

Yeah, she deserved it!

They all hurried to follow Theron as he mounted his horse and moved ahead. He could feel the hesitation behind him, the unspoken doubt stirring in his n, and it only made the ache in his chest worse.

His heart was still lying at her feet, where she had thrown the stone back at him, where she had looked at him as though he were the one who had misunderstood everything.

He had thought his little hare would follow him. That she would be afraid of the forest, of the monsters, of being left alone.

But she had not followed. She did not want him.

The realization burned.

He did not want to cry in front of his n. He wanted to. The feeling sat low and ugly in his throat, but he forced it down and kept his face turned away.

Then the n began shifting the carriage Aveline had been using. Theron lifted a hand.

Stop. She might need it.

Even now.

Even after the look she had given him. Even after the distance in her eyes, so sharp it had felt like being cut. She might still need sowhere to rest. Sowhere to hide from the world if she chose to return.

His chest hurt at the thought of leaving without her.

Her words hurt more.

He mounted his horse again and rode forward in silence, the camp already beginning to stir behind him.

Aveline was gone.

And for the first ti, Theron did not know whether the anger in him was stronger than the fear beneath it.

-----

Aveline sat beneath the tree, hugging Hamilton close.

The creature’s oversized head was heavy in her arms, but she did not mind. She had carried a stubborn, frustrating Theron before; she could certainly carry this poor little orphan too.

He had actually left her.

He had not co looking for her. Had not called her na. Had not gone back for her once.

He had simply ridden away and left her alone in this forest, where shadows moved like living things and giant beasts swallowed darkness whole.

What a cruel man.

Serving that cruel prince must have hardened his heart, she muttered to herself with a wounded little pout.

"Don’t worry," she whispered, pressing a kiss to Hamilton’s head. "I have you, and you have . We are not orphans anymore."

Hamilton looked up at her with those bright, strange eyes and gave a tiny shake of his stubby tail.

Aveline softened despite herself.

"Can you fly?" she asked him, trying to push her thoughts sowhere lighter. Sowhere less dangerous. She could not afford to keep spiraling into what she would do when the sun rose, or how she was supposed to survive the night, or what the next morning would demand of her.

If she was not strong tonight, she might not see dawn.

How could he leave

here?

The thought ca unbidden, hot and bitter.

How could he abandon her in a place like this and not even worry about the money he had paid for her? Not even look back? Had he already decided she was not worth the trouble?

What was he thinking?

Hamilton nudged her gently, and Aveline blinked out of her thoughts.

Again, Theron had slipped into her mind without permission.

She frowned, irritated at herself more than anything else. Why did her thoughts keep circling back to him? Why did her chest tighten whenever she thought of him leaving?

Hamilton fluttered his small wings again, though his body hardly moved an inch.

Aveline stared at him. Then at the tiny, useless-looking tail swishing behind him.

"What exactly can you do with that little tail?" she asked.

Hamilton blinked at her with solemn lizard eyes, as if deeply offended by the question. His tail swayed once more, and this ti it brushed her legs.

Aveline wrinkled her nose. "Stop that."

She held his jaws lightly in both hands and looked into his eyes.

There, deep inside them, she saw it.

A soft golden glow.

Her breath caught.

"You have your mother’s eyes," she said quietly.

Her chest tightened at once.

Helena.

The mory of the mother who had fought and died to protect her child rose painfully in her mind. And with it ca that terrible, impossible light.

The sa light that had killed her.

And Theron...

Theron had been there too.

Did Theron kill Helena?

The thought landed like a stone in her chest.

She did not know.

She did not know anything anymore.

And that, more than the forest, more than the monsters, more than the loneliness pressing in from every side, was what frightened her most.

And then... there was a rustle behind the bush.

Her heart skipped a beat.