Luc POV
Irina's parents, King Oliphant and Queen Taryn, had questioned Luc nonstop ever since he'd arrived in Ruby City, the capital of Lammas. For a mostly somber kingdom, Lammas had a sparkling name for its capital.
Ruby Palace in Lammas also sparkled, so named because of its light red walls and the royals' preference for rubies. Irina's favorite.
He stared at a portrait of Irina circa 1950. She wore a Grace Kelly-type dress and sat on a red sofa illuminated in the painting by the light from a bay window. The same bay window in the room where he sat that let in pale sunlight to bathe Luc's face in reality. To feel close to Irina, he sat on the crushed velvet red sofa.
King Oliphant, whose eyes looked like Irina's but who had long since gone bald, stared into Luc's eyes. "And you just LEFT my daughter to rot in prison in Merak. You saved your own skin. As her betrothed, you should have--"
"What? Gotten myself staked?" Luc challenged.
