Catherine’s fingers trembled as the bracelet loosened against her skin, no longer fused to her and no longer an unbreakable chain.
It had... opened.
The bracelet that never yielded to force or pain had opened for...
For Dorian?
Her lips parted. Her pulse thundered as the woman’s words echoed through her mind.
Find the truth.
If the bracelet opened for Dorian... what did that an? Was she ant to understand Maximilian only to be led back to Dorian? Was he the one who had saved her in their past life?
What was the truth?
Her gaze flicked to the door.
To Maximilian.
Her instinct was imdiate... to tell him, to show him and share this impossible thing. To discuss with him what it ant.
She almost stood.
But first... she had to take it off. Her hand rose toward the loosened clasp. She wanted to rid of it first thing.
But before she could touch it... Dorian caught her chin, turning her face back to him.
Her neck tightened in protest. She tried again, fingers reaching for the bracelet.
#Click#
It snapped shut before she could even touch it, as if sothing had overridden it.
"What—?" The curse nearly slipped from her lips.
Her fingers shook as she tried again, but Dorian’s hold remained firm, guiding her gaze back to him.
Her brows drew together... then her eyes widened with sudden realization.
"The bracelet," she said, lifting her hand between them. "Touch it again."
"Katerina..." Dorian’s voice was steady, patient... like a teacher calling a restless student back to attention.
"I’ve waited," he said quietly. "I’ve waited years to find you."
Catherine exhaled slowly.
She looked at him then... really looked.
She looked at the man she had never been allowed to know properly in that other life. The man who had tried, in his own flawed way, to protect her. The man who had fathered her children.
Her hand fell back to the armrest.
He was stepping into personal territory.
She needed to leave.
That had been the plan.
Before she could speak, he leaned in. His forehead touched hers. Catherine’s breath caught.
"When I found out you were closer to my age this ti," he murmured, "do you have any idea how relieved I was?"
Catherine’s heart pounded. So... he had felt it too—that unease, that wrongness of what had been between them before.
"Back then... I couldn’t hold you as close as I wanted to."
His breath brushed her lips as his eyes locked onto hers.
Her chest rose and fell, tight and unsteady. Her fingers curled hard against the armrest.
"You don’t need him, Katerina..." he said softly, biting his lower lip.
"Veni ad , a regina." His voice dropped, dark and intimate. "Obliviscere mundi—ad solum accede."
Co to , my queen. Forget the world—co to alone.
The words wrapped around her like silk and shadow, pulling, coaxing.
And yet...
Even as her heart pounded wildly, even as confusion and mory tangled inside her... One truth rose, stubborn and unyielding.
She had never stopped loving Maximilian. Not even when she hated him. Not even when she tried to look away.
Her eyes had always found him.
Dorian knew it.
He had always known.
And he lived knowing that fact. No wonder he retreated from her emotionally when rumors spread that she had slept with Maximilian the night their son was butchered.
"Rex mi..."
The old address slipped from her lips before she could stop it—My King. The na she had used in that other life, when grief had hollowed her out after her first stillbirth, when she had nearly given up on living... and Dorian had stayed. He had nursed her back, piece by piece, until she wanted to breathe again.
That was when she stopped calling him Your Majesty.
That was when he beca hers. Her King.
And the mont those words left her mouth now, in that sa ancient tongue...
Dorian kissed her.
Possessive. Claiming. As if the years between them had never existed.
Their first kiss in both lives.
His hands pinned hers to the armrests as he leaned over her, mouth demanding, insistent. Catherine’s pulse spiked, her heart slamming against her ribs.
No.
Her mind knew what this was.
Her heart scread against it.
But her body...
It went still. Slack. The sa terrible surrender she had known the first ti she had offered herself to him for the sake of her people.
Tears gathered in her eyes. She couldn’t move. She didn’t want this, and still she couldn’t move.
Before she could register it, he had pulled her up, sweeping everything from his desk in a clatter. The next mont, her back t the wood, her wrists trapped above her head, his mouth trailing over her lips, her cheeks, her skin.
Why?
Her thoughts felt distant, like they belonged to soone else.
Why is he doing this again? I don’t want this...
Her gaze fixed on the ceiling, vision blurring with tears. His touch moved lower... along her jaw, her waist...
Places Maximilian had touched. Places she had liked being touched by him.
But this...
Her jaw clenched.
Get up, Catherine.You’re not that helpless crown princess anymore.You are Catherine Elizabeth Preston.Your mother didn’t die giving life to you, for you to be used like this.Your father didn’t pamper you for you to end up like this.You are not alone. You are not powerless. Even if you kill him now, your brothers will stand by your side!
Get up.
She drew in a sharp breath.
"Enough, Dorian."
The first ti, she was calling him by his na. Her voice echoed with the authority she had. The freedom to choose her own life. The authority she had over her body. She was not a princess, soone responsible for others. She was hers. Hers alone.
It took her this attempt to realize the power she held over herself.
I am mine. My body is mine to give. Not others to take.
Her heart was pounding, still. But she forced herself to speak up.
Dorian froze.
The shift was imdiate; awareness snapping back into his eyes as he realized she wasn’t responding to him and clearly rejecting him.
Still, he reached for her, trying to pull her close. "You said my na..." His voice trembled, his whole fra shaking against her.
"My Katerina..."
But she didn’t want comfort from him.
She pushed at his shoulders. "Enough."
---
Outside the door, Maximilian’s chest tightened as a familiar pain surged through him... Her pain.
He rose at once and strode to the door.
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