Total pages in book: 68
Estimated words: 66222 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 331(@200wpm)___ 265(@250wpm)___ 221(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 66222 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 331(@200wpm)___ 265(@250wpm)___ 221(@300wpm)
“I think the Council would excuse me in this case,” Ksar said. “I wouldn’t have broken into your mind if you didn’t behave like a wanton with that human. What happened to your bond?”
“My bond broke toward the end of my last stay on Earth,” Harry said. “I don’t want it back. My senses are so much better without it.”
Ksar gave him a flat look. “I’m sure that’s the reason you don’t want your bond back.”
Harry pursed his lips. “My telepathy has never been stronger.”
“Yes,” Ksar said, his tone very dry. “I saw how you used it to get to this city.”
“You hypocrite,” Seyn said when Harry had looked away guiltily. “You have no right to judge Harry for that when you violated his privacy in the worst possible way.” His green eyes narrowed. “By the way, how is it possible? Harry is at least Class 3 now. You’re supposedly Class 2. Supposedly.”
“I haven’t given you leave to speak,” Ksar said, throwing a cold look Seyn’s way. “Stay out of it. This is a family matter.”
Seyn smiled at him sweetly and blew him a kiss. “But I’m practically family, aren’t I?”
A muscle twitched in Ksar’s jaw. “Not yet.”
“Not ever,” Seyn corrected him. “If you pried into Harry’s memories, you know why I came to Earth. I want to get rid of the bond, too.”
Ksar’s face betrayed absolutely no emotion. “I have more important matters to deal with right now than your spoiled tantrums. Go to another room and wait until I’m finished with Harht.”
Seyn flushed. “You—you can’t just—you can’t treat me like that!” He straightened to his full height and glared at Ksar. “I’m Prince Seyn’ngh’veighli of the Third Grand Clan, not your goddamn slave.”
“Then act like it,” Ksar said before looking at Harry sharply. “Stop worrying about the human. He’ll be fine. I simply removed his memory of your little break down.”
Harry pressed his lips together. “I don’t believe you,” he said. “Swear to me you didn’t erase his memories of me,” he said, voicing the fear that had been plaguing him since Adam hadn’t even glanced his way when they’d left the coffee shop.
Ksar was quiet for a few moments, his face hard to read.
“I didn’t, but it would have been for the best, wouldn’t it?” he said at last. “It’s better for everyone involved if he doesn’t remember you. He’ll never see you again.”
Harry felt his eyes burn, a thick lump forming in his throat. He looked at Ksar pleadingly.
Ksar’s expression remained stony. “Get your things, both of you. Leave nothing behind. You’re not coming back. We’re leaving.”
Harry’s chest hurt. Hurt and ached, as if someone had twisted his heart in their hands like a rag to wring all the blood from it.
Seyn made a sympathetic sound and put an arm around Harry’s shoulders, glowering at Ksar. “How can you be so fucking heartless to your own bother? You bastard!”
Ksar’s lips twisted into a derisive smile. “If I didn’t know better, I would think you were a low-bred son of a Sarvakhu whore, not a scion of kings. Mind your foul tongue, kid.”
Seyn scowled. “Don’t you call me kid!”
“What should I call a spoiled child?”
Harry stopped listening. Instead, he stared at his brother’s stony face and realized there was no changing his mind. Ksar had made up his mind. Harry was never coming back. He was never coming back.
He was never going to see Adam again.
“I love him,” Harry whispered. “Doesn’t it matter?”
Ksar and Seyn stopped arguing and turned their heads to him.
Seyn sighed. “I’m so sorry, Harry.”
But Harry didn’t look at him. He looked at his brother’s expressionless face. “Don’t my feelings matter?” Harry hated how his voice broke on the last word, but it was hard to swallow that his big brother—the one who had taught him how to ride zhylk’ki and comforted him every time Harry had fallen, the one who had let him follow him around like a puppy when Harry had been a child—that Ksar didn’t care about his happiness. It hurt. It hurt in a different way than the hurt he felt at the thought of never seeing Adam again.
Ksar’s expression changed, just a little. “You don’t love him,” he said testily. “What you feel is infatuation. You aren’t used to the lack of bond. Everything is new for you. You have too many feelings you don’t know how to handle. It will pass.”
Harry shook his head. “I need him,” he said, looking Ksar in the eye. “I need him with my mind, with my heart, and with my body.”
Beside him, Seyn choked, but Harry didn’t blush. This was too important for him to be embarrassed.
Ksar’s jaw clenched. He looked distinctly uncomfortable, as if he didn’t expect Harry to be so straightforward and shameless.
“You’re confusing lust with love,” Ksar said. “You’re too young and inexperienced to know the difference.”