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Now I look around, I think Taelyn doesn’t need my help getting herself killed. She seems almost intent on doing so herself.

I spread my fingers and hold my palms out to the fire.

A moment later, water splashes onto the flames, and the wet wood hisses and spits, sending thick, white smoke up into the air.

“What the fuck?” I protest.

“We can’t keep the fire going,” Balthorne says. “It’ll attract unwanted attention. I suggest you try to get some sleep while you can.”

I scowl in his direction. The man really does wind me up the wrong way.

Glancing over at Taelyn’s tent, I see she has already retired for the night. It’s a disappointment. I’d been hoping to at least sit and talk with her a while.

I shake the thought from my head and remind myself why I’ve come.

If the princess doesn’t return to the city, but I am able to go back with the answer to saving the kingdom, there will be no doubt as to who will end up on the throne.

25

TAELYN

It’s freezing.

My entire body shivers and my teeth chatter. I’d fallen asleep the moment I’d climbed into my tent, drained from the day’s journey and all the stress that had come before it, but have woken from the cold. I don’t know how long I’ve slept, but my body is already stiff from all the riding, so I guess it must have been at least several hours.

I huddle into a ball and try to pull the blankets tighter around my body, but nothing seems to help. It’s still dark outside, and I’ve got no idea how long it is until morning. I don’t want to give up on sleep, but this feels impossible.

The front of the tent suddenly flaps open. I gasp and half sit, expecting some terrifying creature from the moorland to launch inside. But instead, it’s my stepbrother.

“By the gods, Ruarok,” I whisper. “You scared me half to death.”

“You’re cold,” he replies.

“How do you know that?”

“I can hear your teeth chattering from out there.”

“Oh, I see.”

“Move up,” he tells me. “I’ll keep you warm.”

Maybe I should say no, but I’m so cold, and the promise of warmth is enough to ensure my lips stay firmly shut. He enters the tent fully and pulls the flaps shut behind him. Then he crosses over and lies down behind me. He fits the front of his body into the back of mine and pulls the blankets up over us both. It occurs to me that now there’s no one outside of the tent keeping watch, but I’m already feeling warmer from having him so close. He wraps his arms around me, pulling my back against his chest, my wings crushed between us, and his top knee wedges between mine. He buries his face into my neck, and it’s as though we’ve become one body.

“Thank you,” I whisper.

The shivering subsides as does the clatter of my teeth, but still I can’t sleep. It’s not because I’m cold now, but because I’m lying, alone, in such proximity to my stepbrother.

And I’m pretty sure the hardness pressing into the small of my back isn’t a dagger.

“Ruarok,” I hiss.

“Yes?”

“Your…erection…is digging into me.”

He makes no attempt to move. “Apologies, Princess, but I can’t help it when I’m this close to you.”

I attempt to wriggle away, to create a tiny amount of space between us, but instead of it having the desired effect, Ruarok lets out a throaty groan.