94

Jacques didn’t sleep at all the previous night, anxiously waiting for dawn to break to know if Dove survived. Being a healer, he knows the amount of blood she consumed form him would be enough to save her life, however, it’s his life that he worried about.

Lorcan wants his head for what he did to the princess, he’s not certain which part is worse, though. Having sex with her – multiple times – running away with her or letting her help herself with his blood. One of those was enough for the king to sentence him to death, but all three? He wouldn’t be surprised if Lorcan decides to slowly torture him before ending his life.

At least Dove would be alive. A vampire, yes, but alive.

He wonders what she would look like when she wakes up. No doubt more ethereal than she already is, borderline goddess-like. The thought of her makes him close his eyes and lean his head against the wall, trying to imagine that she was here with him.

However, the echo of footsteps down the dungeon hall causes his eyes to blink open. The healer looks up when the footsteps stop at his cell’s gate, his heart dropping when he sees Lorcan staring at him through the bars.

Did he come to sentence him to death? Or to a lifetime of torture for loving the princess?

Lorcan doesn’t speak for a good minute, which gives the healer a chance to the study the king’s expression. To his utter confusion, he doesn’t detect any hate or resentment in his friend’s steel gaze, nor any harsh lines around his eyes and brow that indicates how he’s feeling. Instead, Lorcan appears…calm.

Perhaps a little too calm.

Jacques rises to his feet when the king unlocks the gate and enters the cell, his presence adding to the chill in the air. He doesn’t dare utter a sound, just in case it would be the last thing he does.

After a minute, Lorcan finally breaks the silence. “Dove awoke an hour ago. She survived.”

The healer nods slowly, feeling the relief spread through him like wildfire. At least he knows she’s alive. Still, he doesn’t speak, anxiously waiting for the king to continue.

Lorcan inhales a long, even breath, closing his eyes as he slowly releases it. What he said next knocked the wind from the healer’s lungs. “I was wrong – about everything.” His eyes lock with Jacques’, swimming with regret. “I should’ve known you would never do anything to harm my children, especially Dove. And I am greatly sorry for how I handled this situation, and for how I treated you. I hope that you can someday forgive me.”

To say that Jacques is stunned to silence, is an understatement. Even his legs nearly lose function, giving a slight buckle. Lorcan, the King of Sangaris, is apologizing? That only happened once or twice in all the years he’s known him.

He is a blinking, gaping disaster as he searches for a reply, but only manages to stammer, “I-I don’t understand. You’re – did you just…” When he can’t string together a decent sentence, he settles on only one word. “Why?”

Lorcan’s lips twitch with a subtle smile of disbelief. “Because it seems we have something in common.” He pauses before making the revelation. “We both found our mates.”

Jacques frowns utterly lost. However, being an intellectual healer, it takes him but a few seconds to replay those words before discovering what they meant. And when it dawns on him what Lorcan was implying, the healer’s entire body froze, and time slowed to a stop.

He is Dove’s mate.

It’s more a realization than a question as that day in the training room flashes before him. Or more specifically, when he tasted her blood for the very first time before experiencing that vision.

He remembers it as though it happened that morning. Being gifted with a five-second peek into the future and seeing how he’d be showing her how to hold that bow, and every place his hands would touch her. It was only five seconds, but it was enough for him to realize why he cared more about Dove than anyone else in his life. Why he was always drawn to her and sought out her company above the rest.

He suspected it then, but now he is certain of it. They’re mates.

The concept almost leaves me giddy. What are the chances of him and Lorcan finding their mates? With it being so rare for vampires no less.

However, it also evokes another thought from the healer, one he carefully voices out loud, “But what about her betrothal?”

“Clearly, as you probably already know,” the king fixes him with a pointed look, “I can’t marry off a daughter who’s one, not a virgin, and two, unable to birth children because she woke up as a vampire.”

Jacques cringes inwardly. He’s partially to blame for that.

“However,” Lorcan continues on a lighter tone, “it would also be cruel of a father to withhold his children from finding true love. Even if that love happens to be between his daughter and his best friend.” For the first time, he offers the healer a genuine smile. “Elle actually explained it so beautifully – and rather strictly – to me earlier. I believe her exact words were, ‘If I had to entrust my daughter’s happiness with anyone in this world, it’d be Jacques.’ And I must admit that I agree with her.”

The healer’s eyes well with tears – whether it’s from relief or happiness or both, he doesn’t know. Wiping at his eyes with his palms, he lowers his gaze to the floor, knowing he’d certainly break if he looks at the king a moment longer.

“And as for the wedding,” Lorcan adds, “I was about to call it off had it not been for Chelsea who gladly accepted to take Dove’s place.” He huffs an ironic laugh. “If I had known she found the whole betrothal idea so romantic, I would’ve considered her for the part sooner. Perhaps it is a sign that I should spend more time with my children.”

Jacques, however, stopped listening after the part of Chelsea volunteering to marry Rubin. He is just too stunned at how nearly losing Dove to a Dweller, could lead to Lorcan indirectly giving his blessing that he may continue to love his daughter.

For the first time since he admitted his feelings for the princess to himself, the healer feels completely and utterly at peace.

But there is one more question that sits at the back of his mind. “So, what happens now?”

“Now?” Lorcan arches a brow. “Now you’re going to clean up and pay my daughter a visit, while I’m going to smooth things out with the Southerners. Let’s just hope they don’t have any silver on them.”