The Redeemable Prince (The Star-Crossed Series Book 9)

by Rachel Higginson

  When we fought Terletov and his men, I couldn’t bring myself to pull away from him. I needed him. As much bravado as I liked to strut around with, storming the Citadel had been pretty terrifying.

  And then the whole near death experience… Yeah, I needed Sebastian and his Magic more than ever.

  I just didn’t know what to do with it.

  And I didn’t know how he felt.

  Sure, there were times when I thought he was seconds away from jumping my bones, but that could just be habit for him. He had always been attracted to me. I had never doubted that, no matter how vain it sounded.

  But was there still something deeper between us?

  I didn’t know.

  “You’re not so bad, Olivia.” I pushed off the wall and moved into the hallway. “For a human.”

  I felt her elbow in my ribs as she kept pace with me. “Yeah, and you’re not so bad for an Immortal.”

  It was my turn to laugh. “It really is amazing how disgusting you can make that word sound. We’ve survived for thousands of years on elitism and prejudice against humans and then you show up.”

  She grinned at me as we walked down the hall. “Just in time.”

  “Just in time,” I repeated. “I’m glad Jericho has you. He deserves someone like you.”

  “You know what? I hear that a lot.”

  We moved to a different wing of the castle. We had been working over there all through the night and that was the last room we had to clear. Now we needed to check back in the throne room for more orders.

  Sebastian was in charge while Mimi kept Avalon locked in a bedroom until he was back to perfect health again. Jericho had called Talbott earlier this morning and reported all of the disturbing details. Lilly and he planned to fly in sometime tonight. They had avoided the majority of the conflict for some time, but they were anxious to get back to the Kingdom. Now that Terletov’s forces had been shrunk to just him, Talbott felt like Lilly could be safe here.

  Eden and Kiran decided to stay with his mother for a while longer. Eventually, they would bring her back here, but they wanted her condition to stabilize first.

  We walked into the throne room and dodged the chaos that buzzed through every inch of the space. Titans came and went with urgent information. Humans and Immortals that hadn’t been incapacitated by Terletov roamed restlessly, waiting to be cleared and sent home. Castle employees had started to come back to the Citadel once the word was out that we’d reclaimed our capitol, along with several other Immortals seeking refuge until Terletov could be pronounced dead.

  The labs and experiments Terletov had set up here had all been destroyed.

  It was a wonderful feeling to know those things were taken care of. Even if Terletov was still out there. His death was just housekeeping at this point.

  Sebastian stood in the middle of the room directing traffic and listening to all kinds of complaints and information. He looked completely in his element, utterly in charge.

  I leaned against the back wall and watched him for a few minutes. I knew he could already feel me in the room, but he hadn’t had the opportunity to acknowledge me yet.

  I felt his Magic jump to attention when I walked in though and I had to take that as a good sign.

  Wait. What? Was I really thinking about this seriously? Sebastian and me again? It seemed so crazy. And I couldn’t believe that I’d let Olivia talk to me for ten minutes and then give up all of my convictions and heartache.

  Except it wasn’t exactly Olivia’s advice that had me thinking this way. If I were honest with myself, I had been bending this way for a while. Slowly. Surely. Incrementally.

  Maybe I had never not been leaning this way. Maybe I had always hoped Sebastian would come to his senses and sweep me back into his arms. But maybe not.

  It seemed like ever since Lilly’s wedding, there had been something different about him. There had been something that captured my attention and didn’t let go.

  He wasn’t the same boy I dated. Well, he was… but that boy had become a man in the year we spent apart. He had matured in ways I never thought possible. He had become this giving, unselfish, incredible leader.

  People stood straighter when he walked into the room. People listened to him when he had something to say.

  I listened to him. I stood straighter. And the longer I listened and the longer I stood in his presence, the more I realized I couldn’t fight this attraction between us. And more, I couldn’t stop falling for him all over again.

  Finally, he lifted his eyes from the Titan that was in the middle of some lengthy report. Our gazes crashed together from across the room and a crooked smile lifted the corner of his mouth. I felt the slow pulse of his Magic ripple through the room until it surged over me, a hot tingle that started in my toes and floated to my head, leaving me dizzy and lightheaded.

  He mouthed a, “Hey,” at me and lifted his hand in a cute little wave.

  “Hey,” I mouthed back.

  His attention went back to the Titan that had continued talking despite Sebastian’s distraction. I smiled at how serious Sebastian’s expression turned the minute his eyes left me. I could still feel the heat of his Magic and the intensity of his gaze as it lingered over me.

  I continued to watch him, oblivious to everything else in the room. I couldn’t stop. I suddenly felt panicked that I had forgotten some of his features in the time we spent apart. I followed the curve of his masculine jaw and the lines of his strong nose. I watched his hazel eyes burn with intensity and intelligence. His dark blonde hair had been pulled on and tugged as he worked throughout the night, and it stood in unkempt tufts all over his gorgeous head. His broad shoulders stood perfectly at attention and his hands rested on his trim waist.

  He was the most gorgeous man I had ever seen. And only part of that was because of his good looks. When I let myself move beyond the hurt of our breakup, I could admit that most of his beauty came from inside of him.

  He had a tendency to be selfish in the past, but now he seemed to think only of others. He was a great big brother to Mimi. He was protective and loyal, but teasing and tough enough not to spoil her. And I supposed he had been the same with me only in a different way.

  I had been spoiled my whole life by parents that were too busy to acknowledge me. They had thrown money at me since the day I was born. I did the job of carrying on the family legacy, and looked just pretty enough to feed their ego, but I was not worthy of their time and affection. They had bigger, better pursuits to clamor after.

  Sebastian had known that, but never felt sorry for me. I supposed for a large part of his life, he could relate. Instead, he had treated me delicately in some ways and sternly in others. He never let me get away with my snobbishness or prejudice, but always made sure I knew how much he loved me and wanted to spend time with me.

  A sick churning burned through my stomach. I had made a mistake breaking up with him.

  A colossal mistake.

  And now it might be too late to do anything about it.

  The Titan nodded his head at Sebastian and then marched from the room. Sebastian’s eyes found mine again and they warmed significantly.

  He closed the distance between us in long, confident strides. “Let’s get out of here.”

  My heart jumped at his sudden directive. “Don’t they need you?”

  He threw a quick glance over his shoulder before looking back at me. “They’ll be fine for a while. I have something more important to do.”

  “More important than this?” I gestured at the busy room.

  “Much.” He took my open palm and tucked it into his.

  “And you want me to come with you?” This was confusing. By the looks he had been giving me, I hadn’t been expecting him to be thinking about Kingdom business. Disappointment added to the acid in my stomach and for a second I thought I might be sick.

  “You have to come with me, Sera,” he murmured, dragging me from the room.

  “Why?”

  “
Because it’s about us.”

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Sebastian

  Seraphina stared at me for long, unending moments. I couldn’t read her thoughts, even though our Magic still floated around our bodies connected as tightly as when we dated. It was frustrating. I was supposed to be half-Witch, half-Psychic and how convenient would it be to read all those thoughts flitting through her complicated mind? But alas, Kendricks notoriously favored the Witch side of our heritage.

  And at the very root of my gene pool, I was a Kendrick.

  Also, I was in love with Seraphina.

  Had I said that yet?

  So in love. So very in love.

  I might have realized this slowly if life went as it should. But it didn’t. We found ourselves in war after war, fighting sadistic dictator after sadistic dictator.

  And so, when I saw Seraphina in that room, at the mercy of one Dmitri Terletov, I snapped. I lost all sense and reason. And when I emerged, it was reinforced that I loved this girl.

  Not only did I love her, but I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her.

  I had been a fool before. I had been selfish and shortsighted.

  I had been restless with youth and still angry from losing an uncle I had both loved and hated. My early relationship had been confusing. Seraphina had struggled with a lifetime of privilege and prejudice.

  We were two kids that had been rocked to the core form a Rebellion neither of us belonged in. And then as we struggled to re-identify ourselves and come up with a lifestyle that catered to our new beliefs at the same time fit our old stereotypes, we clashed constantly with each other.

  And then there was peace in the Kingdom, which made us both fidgety. Maybe our destruction had been inevitable.

  But so was this moment.

  When I made her mine again.

  I knew we had both grown and matured over the last year. And maybe that’s what we needed. We had spent the last of our teenage years wrapped up in each other and when adulthood hit us, we had no idea how we were supposed to act or what it meant for us to grow up apart from each other.

  Well, we got our chance. But I was done with finding myself without Seraphina now. I needed her. I wanted her. I couldn’t breathe without her close and I certainly couldn’t feel unless it was her touch on me.

  We were made for each other.

  We were soul mates.

  And now she needed to believe this too.

  I took her hand and led her down the long corridor. She didn’t fight me, and that small act of nonviolence spurred my hope. Her Magic gave nothing away, but she hadn’t pulled it either.

  I glanced at her out of the corner of my eye and she returned the gesture with the same exact look.

  Damn, if this girl wasn’t going to drive me mad.

  I took her to the room I had claimed as mine. I needed privacy for the impending conversation. I had been working for twenty-four hours straight. I needed a break. And I needed to talk to Sera.

  I could not continue to run this renovation and take care of all of these people that needed me until I had a conversation with Sera.

  I had been trying to appear put together and in charge, but my thoughts had been invaded by this woman. My blood ran hot. And my attention span was nothing but a joke.

  This had to happen.

  And now.

  I opened the door and gestured for her to go first. She gave me an adorably confused expression but walked into the dark room.

  I followed quickly behind her and switched on the light just before I closed the door behind us.

  She had walked to the center of the sparse space. When the light came on, she spun around on her heel trying to make out the furniture that indisputably made up a bedroom: a dresser, a rather large bed, and a small sitting area.

  I tried to suppress my smile.

  Truly, I tried.

  She turned back to me with eyes wide. “I expected a meeting of some kind.”

  “This is not a meeting.”

  “I can see that.”

  I took three steps forward until we were toe to toe. “I should never have let you walk away from me.”

  She didn’t seem to comprehend my words. She stared at me while her eyes only continued to grow. I wanted to smooth the worry lines that had bunched together on her forehead, but I refrained. I doubted that would aid my cause.

  “Sebastian,” she whispered.

  I had to close my eyes against the sensation my name breathed on her sweet lips caused to riot inside of me. My name had come softly and devastatingly out of her perfect mouth. She had wrecked me with just those three syllables in her drawling American accent.

  I wanted to devour her right then and there. I wanted to press my mouth to hers and consume every inch of her. I wanted to remind her that she was mine and that I was hers.

  But I knew I had to explain myself first or she would run. She would never trust me again unless I earned it.

  “Sera, I shouldn’t have let you end things. We should never have ended. I love you. I’ve loved you since I was eighteen and we had no idea what we were doing or who we would be. I loved you the day you left me so much that it killed me to watch you go. I never recovered from that. Never. I’ve tried to bury my feelings for you and pretend they don’t exist. I’ve tried to punish you for making me hurt. And I’ve tried to pretend that what we had wasn’t as intense as it was. But I can’t do any of that anymore. I can’t stop myself from wanting to be with you, from wanting to touch you… from wanting to be in your life.”

  “What are you saying, Bastian?”

  “I was stupid to let you go. And I’m tired of paying for that mistake. I want to be with you again. For real. Forever. I’m tired of skirting around the issue and ignoring the chemistry between us. I’m tired of going to bed alone and erasing text messages I want to send you and emails that beg for your forgiveness. We belong together, Sera. I know you believe it too.”

  “And if I don’t?”

  “I feel your Magic, Darling.”

  She cleared her throat and took two steps back. I hated the distance between us. I hated that she didn’t fall immediately into my arms, weeping with joy.

  Alright, maybe I’m being a little melodramatic.

  She cleared her throat again. I could tell she was nervous and I hated that. I wanted to comfort her. I wanted to wrap my arms around her and draw her to me, holding her against my chest until her heartbeat slowed and her pulse returned to normal.

  And then I wanted to speed it up again for different reasons.

  “We were a disaster together.”

  “We weren’t.”

  “We were explosive.”

  “We were passionate.”

  “We fought all the time.”

  “We were scared of how deeply we felt for each other.”

  “We were immature.”

  “We were young.”

  “We couldn’t compromise.”

  “We didn’t know how good compromising could be.”

  “So what exactly are you saying?”

  “I’m saying we made a lot of mistakes before, Sera. But that’s what they were… mistakes. We’ve learned. We’ve grown. We’ve spent the last year trying to stay apart from each other and it’s just not working. We belong together.”

  “We belong together?”

  I could hear the fear lacing each of her words. Her hands trembled at her sides and her body seemed violently nervous. I hated watching her doubt what I knew would be the answer for both of us.

  What I knew would be our salvation.

  “I tried to live without you. I tried to remove myself from your life and pretend that it didn’t tear me apart every single day. I can’t do it any longer. I’m exhausted trying to keep my distance from you. I want you, Sera. I want to be with you always. I want to make a life with you, a future. I want to put this behind us and acknowledge that we love each other.”

  She put a hand over her eyes and shook out her glorious man
e of blonde hair. “I can’t believe you dragged me in here to have this conversation.”

  I closed the distance between us. I couldn’t stand it. I had to touch her.

  My chest brushed up against hers. She jumped from the contact and pulled her hand away from her face. She squeaked seeing me so close to her and stepped backward.

  I matched her stride for stride until her back pressed against the bedpost. Her eyes grew huge when she realized where she’d put herself. Her hands flailed at her side until the stretched behind her to grab the post for stability.

  She looked so vulnerable standing there in front of me. Her slender neck was extended so that she could look up at me while simultaneously looking down at me through her practiced snobbery. Her lips pressed into a pout that made me want to lick the seam of those perfect lips until she opened them and gave me what I wanted. Her arms were folded behind her back as if I’d bound her just like that.

  And her eyes…

  Those beautiful blue sapphires glittered like the most priceless gems. She was one part furious, another part scared and a significant part excited.

  I liked my odds.

  “What happens when I get pushed to the back seat again? What happens when you find another priority?”

  “That won’t happen.” I traced the curve of her jaw with my knuckles and enjoyed watching her shiver from my touch.

  That didn’t stop her sarcastic, “Oh, you just sound so confident. I should just believe you, right? It should just be that simple?”

  “I didn’t say it would be simple. It’s never been simple between us. You’re a difficult woman. And you like to make things even more difficult. If I had to promise one thing, it would be that this isn’t simple and that it will never be easy.”

  Her eyes narrowed and I watched a hundred filthy words flicker over her tongue. She couldn’t decide which to use first. She probably wanted to call me all of the names.

  “It’s adorable how cute you think you are.”

  I couldn’t help but chuckle. “It’s adorable how hard you’re trying to fight this. You’re mine, Sera. You’ve always been mine.” I dropped my hand to her waist and slid my fingers beneath the hem of her t-shirt.