It was silent in the living room as Bastien sank back into the chair and forced himself to have patience. Kieran was connecting better with her, and he could probably bring her around.
Thalia looked from Bastien to his brother. “I don’t disbelieve what you’re telling me. But I don’t want to leave. This is what I know. It’s who I am.”
“Thalia,” Kieran said with a gentleness that Bastien just didn’t have. “This is who you are for right now. But there is so much more to you that you don’t know. Aren’t you even the tiniest bit curious about where you come from?”
“Of course, I’m curious. My world just got turned upside down, and I want to know why. But I don’t want to give up my life here. It’s easy, and what you’re suggesting is going to be very hard for me to go back to. And honestly, there’s something about your brother that doesn’t sit right with me.”
“Like what?” Kieran asked, casting a glance at Bastien. “Tell me and let me put your mind at ease.”
Thalia snorted, her skeptical regard moving to Bastien. She glared at him. “He seems like he’s operating on a short fuse, and I can’t entrust myself to someone like that.”
Kieran didn’t even look at his brother. “Bastien would die to protect you. You can trust him.”
“He clearly dislikes me,” Thalia dismissed the notion. “I could never trust him.”
Bastien remained silent through this exchange. It made him uncomfortable that they were speaking of him as if he weren’t sitting there. But he also knew he didn’t have the ability to address Thalia’s concerns because he simply didn’t care about them.
It was a good thing he’d brought his brother, because he was a far better ambassador.
Kieran sighed, his expression somber. “You and Bastien have history together.”
A jolt of some unnamed emotion went through Bastien at Kieran’s offhanded mention of his relationship with Thalia. Until this moment, nothing about her had penetrated, but that stark reminder that they had a history dating back to childhood caused something to stir deep within.
He brushed it off and watched Thalia’s reaction.
“What kind of history?” she asked skeptically.
“You were in love with each other,” Kieran said and Thalia’s face registered shock alongside a sound of disbelief.
Bastien let the words roll over him. It sounded like an untruth, yet he knew there was a time when he and Thalia were in love.
He just couldn’t fathom it.
When he looked at Thalia, he felt nothing.
Well, almost nothing. He still felt a tenuous pull toward her, but he dismissed it as nothing more than loyalty to the crown and his mission. She was important only to the well-being of all Vyronasians.
“My brother is an admittedly complicated fellow,” Kieran said easily, and that almost brought a smile to Bastien’s face. “He’s changed over the years, but his loyalty to you has not.”
Thalia picked up the bottle of liquor but didn’t drink from it. She merely held it in her hands, staring at the label that read Jack Daniels before lifting her green eyes to Bastien.
He tried to ignore her beauty. It was unparalleled in their land, and when she returned, she’d have every eligible royal seeking her hand in marriage. It aggravated him to no end knowing they’d all be making fools of themselves for her, and he wasn’t sure why that would even bother him.
“I want to hear it from you,” she said quietly. “What were we to each other? Was it love? And if so, what changed you, because you clearly don’t like me now.”
Bastien chose his words carefully, still maintaining truth. “It’s not that I don’t like you. It’s that I don’t feel anything for you at all.”
Thalia’s expression crumbled. She didn’t remember him. Had no clue what they’d shared or the depth of feelings between them. But his response was callous, even to an observer.
Guilt flickered inside him, not just for the hurtful words, but because they weren’t the truth exactly. He had indeed felt something for her just an hour ago. He’d been scared when Maddox had handed him her ring, fearful he wouldn’t make it to her in time. When he saw her tearing around the corner of the barn after shooting the erchras, his relief at finding her alive was so great, his knees almost buckled.
For the throne, he reminded himself. All he did now was for the throne and not her.
Thalia placed the bottle on the coffee table and stood from the couch with her gun cradled over her arms, pointed away from the men. Kieran and Bastien stood as well.
She looked from one brother to the other. “I thank you both for helping me with those… whatever those things were. But I’m going to politely decline your invitation to go back.”
Kieran looked to his brother for direction, but Bastien was done trying to talk sense into her. He held out his hand, palm facing her. Thalia tipped her head curiously at his gesture, as it seemed innocuous.
The power building behind it wasn’t.
His lips curled upward in the barest of smiles, but his words were anything but warm. “You’re under the mistaken impression, Princess Thalia, that this was an invitation.”
Her emerald eyes rounded at the implication, and before she could move her gun one fraction of an inch, Bastien hit her with a spell. “And now… you shall remember.”
CHAPTER 5
Thalia
My body freezes in place, but I don’t feel unbalanced or like I might fall backward with the pull of gravity. I can’t move a single muscle and I try to stave off the panic. Can I breathe? Am I suffocating?
I inhale deeply but can’t register my lungs or chest moving. Regardless, I feel the oxygen and blow it out through my nose in relief.
I try to glare at Bastien, who still has his palm facing me, but my face doesn’t twitch to show my anger.
But wait… my eyes can move, and they slide over to Kieran, watching warily.
Bastien moves to stand on the other side of the coffee table, directly opposite me. “I’m going to channel some of my magic into you. It won’t hurt. I just want you to keep your mind open and don’t fight the integration. You will feel the memories come back.”
I’m not ready for this. Not ready for my life to change. I don’t want these memories because I have a million more questions first.
Bastien stares into my eyes, and I try to convey something with them.
Please… don’t do this to me.
“I’m sorry, but we have to.” His tone sounds regretful, his expression determined. “It won’t take long. You won’t be reliving each memory. It will flood back, and you may have certain memories that stand out, but eventually, you’ll have a sudden awareness of everything you used to know.”
I’m furious he’s doing this without my permission and I feel violated. I’m terrified my life might be changing for the worse.
“Relax,” Bastien orders, and surely he has to know how ludicrous that sounds.
I glance back at Kieran who nods at me with encouragement. He seems the easygoing brother who I actually kind of liked, but I’m angry with him, too, for letting this happen.
And then… it hits me.