Page 94 of The Prince's Fealty

He’d been certain Terila wasn’t the right match for him. He’d been pretty sure that Ada and Thurnil’s match was terrible. But he hadn’t fully grasped what it would mean to have magic inside you day in and day out that you were repelled by.

It sounded like torture.

Speaking of Terila, Tor realized suddenly that Rin wasn’t in the room.

“Where’s Rin?”

Before he could get seriously alarmed, Pel laid a hand on his arm. “He and Nawila went to get Terila and Pamuna. We didn’t want them to go off and raise the alarm when we actually made it this far.”

Tor sagged in relief. He felt like a terrible friend for not noticing the man’s absence sooner, but there seemed to be somuchgoing on that perhaps he could be excused for his lapse.

Var rose to his feet, helping Fernila to hers, and they came to sit closer to Ada, who honestly seemed to be the worst off at this point. Tor eyed Var suspiciously. How injured was he? He didn’t seem to have any physical ailments, but that was definitely not the only sort of injury possible.

Cala appeared to have dropped off to sleep in her mother’s arms, probably exhausted from what Tor had to assume was the most epic of crying fits.

“Why didn’t you say anything?” Var asked Ada.

She raised her tear-stained face from Stronex’s chest. “You wanted the marriage. You said it was important to you and to the United Realms.”

Var’s face twisted. “I’m still your brother. You could have told me.”

Ada looked like she was going to start crying again, and Stronex looked like he was going to punch the High King in the face.

Tor leveled a stare at his brother and said, “Sometimes, you’re not very good at listening.”

For a moment, it looked like Var was going to lose his temper, but Fernila laid a hand on his arm, and he looked down at her, over at his sister—still leaning against Stronex as though she didn’t have enough strength to hold herself up—and then back to Tor.

“That’s true,” he admitted with what looked like difficulty. “I’ve spent my whole reign trying to live up to our parents’ legacy. The peace is important to me and the United Realms. What Fernila and I have is everything I’ve ever wanted.” He cast her a fleeting fond smile that didn’t make Tor want to gag as much as it usually did. Var turned to Ada. “I assumed it would be the same for you, which was foolish of me. Of course every relationship is different. I didn’t ask enough questions. I’m so sorry.”

Ada made a face. “I didn’t want you to know. There’s a reason I didn’t say anything. Thurnil and I didn’t realize until the bonding ceremony that we repelled one another. And by then, it was too late. It seemed better to try to bear it.”

Var’s expression was twisted into a strange combination of looking like he wanted to argue while blaming himself for everything.

Tor was reluctantly willing to concede it hadn’tallbeen Var’s fault, but it still send prickles of annoyance through him that his twin hadn’t noticedanythingwrong in the four years of Ada’s marriage. Tor had been sure something was off practically from the beginning… but it was true that Ada had taken pains to hide it.

“I’m so sorry you went through that,” Var told her. “I should have followed up better, and I never should have left you unsure if you could talk to me. Even if we’d decided trying to break the bond was too much of a risk, you shouldn’t have suffered alone. That will be forever my fault.”

Ada sniffed, a few more tears trailing down her face, and then she reached for Var, and they hugged for a long time. (Tor couldn’t help but note that when they finished hugging, she nestled back in Stronex’s arms. Now was obviously not the time to ask any questions.)

Var looked over at Tor. “You were trying to tell me that you and Terila were incompatible, weren’t you?”

Tor nodded. “We Tendrilled once, and we were distinctly incompatible.” He sighed and admitted, “I also had no intention of bonding to anyone. I was resentful that you were ordering me around like a subject. Also, I was drinking too much, and I had no idea what I was going to do with my life. I can see now that you were trying to fix that, but it felt like you were treating me like a pawn on a chessboard.”

“I got impatient,” Var admitted ruefully. “I knew you were capable of so much, and it felt like you were squandering that. I was neither patient nor understanding, and I apologize.”

Tor wondered if this was the moment to announce everything. He wasn’t sure he’d ever get his brother in a better mood.

He opened his mouth, but the door opened. They all turned, the guards with their swords out already, but it was Rin—carrying Pamuna in his arms.

Terila and Nawila were following him. Nawila looked wrecked.

“What happened?” Tor demanded at the same time as his brother.

It hadn’t even occurred to him that anyone else might be injured. He was a terrible friend.

Terila was wringing her hands, face distressed. “She collapsed all of a sudden and passed out. I didn’t know what to do. I knew we needed help, but I didn’t want to leave Pamuna on her own. Thank goodness Rin and Nawila came back.”

Tekilona directed Rin to set Pamuna carefully down on the floor. Nawila immediately knelt down beside her, looking like she was never going to leave Pamuna’s side again.