Prince of Traitors

Kieran

"He's gone."

I look up as Owin storms into my house a few doors down from hers. "What are you talking about?"

"Jasper," she snaps. "He's gone. He left in the middle of the night."

I frown and stand from my bed. "He's probably just out for a walk or something," I say.

"No," she says. "He left me a note. And this." She holds up a long gold chain, a ring dangling off of it. I've seen it before, around the prince's neck. The ring on the chain is carved of a milky white stone, veined in gold. The other ring that had previously been on the chain is now on Owin's pointer finger, the big diamonds winking in the morning light.

"What did the note say?" I ask.

"For us to take both of the rings he brought from Highcaster and use them to get the tribe off the continent," she says. She paces the narrow width of my house. "He said he—he promised he would stay." Her voice wavers, and I see her eyes shine with unshed tears.

I shake my head, confused. "Well, did he say where he went?"

She shakes her head. She wraps her arms around her midsection, her shoulders curling inward. Her hair is mussed, like she didn't bother to brush it before she got out of bed.

"...Win?" I begin warily. "Did something happen?"

She gnaws on her lip and averts her eyes from my gaze. I have to say her name again just to get her to look at me.

"I..." she begins. "We were drunk, and we..."

"What is it?" My voice is soft.

She shifts her weight from foot to foot. "Jasper and I—" She takes a deep breath. "We slept together last night."

I sigh a little. "I assumed," I say. "I saw you leave Winter's Day with him."

Her brows furrow when she raises her eyes to mine. "You're not angry?"

I shake my head, give her a small smile. "No," I say. I sigh and pull her down to sit next to me on my bed. She stares at her hands in her lap, and I hate how ashamed she looks.

"Do you love him?" I ask quietly.

She doesn't look at me when she murmurs, "I'm sorry."

I blink in surprise. I tilt her face toward mine with two fingers under her chin. "Why are you sorry?" I ask.

She sighs heavily. "I don't know why I came to you," she says. She stands from my bed, her back to me as she folds her arms over her midsection. "I just didn't know who else to talk to. I feel like I'm betraying you."

I stand and cross in front of her. I grip her shoulders and make her look at me. "Don't ever think that," I say. "You owe me nothing, least of all an apology."

Owin shakes her head. "Yes, I do."

"No, you don't," I say. I look her in the eye. "I love you, and I want you to be happy. I've seen the way you look at each other. He makes you happy, Win."

Tears well in her eyes and spill over her cheeks. "But what about you?" Her voice is a whisper.

I give her a small smile. "I'll be alright," I reply. I pull her into my arms, and she hugs me around my waist. Truthfully, if Owin really belonged to me, we'd have wed a long time ago. And perhaps we would have, but she and Jasper have something special. It would be unfair to her to claim her as mine and mine alone.

Owin sniffles, her tears wetting my shirt. "I love you, too," she says softly.

I lean down and kiss the top of her head.

"It's not just that," she says. She pulls away and raises her eyes to mine, and they're filled with tears all over again. "I never told you what happened to me in Highcaster."

I tilt my head to one side, silently urging her to tell me.

"The injury on my ear, the cut tip," she says. "It's a slave's mark. I stole money, and Jasper's father—the king—sentenced me to servitude for my crimes.

"And the man I worked for, he—he got drunk one night and he—" She's shaking now, the tears freely falling down her cheeks. I wipe them away with the pad of my thumb. "He attacked me. He held me down and he..."

Owin isn't able to finish the sentence, and I hate that I can guess how it ends. I gather her into my arms for the second time and let her cry. She's trembling all over. "Shhh," I murmur. "Shhh. I've got you."

"I feel so stupid," she mutters. She pulls away from me to wrap her arms around herself.

"Why?"

"I can't even admit to myself what happened to me," she growls. "And then I went and got drunk and slept with Jasper like it was nothing. And I was stupid enough to believe him when he said he would stay."

Her guilt is written on her face. I'm unsure of what to say to her, to this girl I love baring her soul to me. My heart aches for her pain, and rage courses through me at the monster that raped her. I know I can't possibly say anything to make it okay, but I can try.

"That monster deserves to rot for what he did to you," I say. My voice is gentle. "But it doesn't make you a monster just because you were violated by a monster." She still doesn't look at me. "And as far as Jasper is concerned, I don't think he meant to hurt you." Owin peers at me but doesn't respond. Tears still stream down her cheeks.

"You've been through so much together. It's clear he's mad about you," I say.

She closes her eyes and leans to the side to rest her head on my shoulder. "I don't know what to do," she says softly.

"Do you have any idea where Jasper might have gone?"

She shakes her head. "I want to find him."

I press a kiss to the top of her head. "Then we will. We've done it before, we'll do it again. We'll bring him home."