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I flung an arm over my eyes and did not even bother to look. This was precisely the type of extraordinarily eventful day that would send all three of them scurrying into my bed.

I’d had a whipping earlier, we’d been invaded by barbarian guests from the north,andI now found myself betrothed to one of them—to the scariest one of them all. I was surprised the girls had not appeared sooner. Although, there had been a raucous party going on downstairs. They loved a party, even though they would not have been allowed to stay long.

A lump formed in my throat considering how many nights I would have left to myself in this bed. Perhaps there would be no more than tonight. I was not certain when my husband-to-be would wish to depart for the Borderlands, but until then, where would I sleep? Here? Elsewhere? Alone? With him? I gulped. The uncertainty gnawed at me.

I flipped back the coverlet in invitation. “Very well. Come on. Get into bed.”

The voice that spoke did not belong to any of my sisters. “That’s more of a welcome than I was expecting.”

I lurched into a sitting position, shoving the hair off my forehead, blinking and letting my eyes acclimate, grateful for the glow from the fire that saved me from complete darkness. Stig’s outline stood at the foot of my bed, an invading shadow, his familiar features cast in gloom but unmistakable.

I launched from the bed, my bare feet landing on the rug-covered floor. “What are you doing in here?” I glanced around as though there might be other unexpected visitors with him.

As close as we were, he had never dared to enter my private quarters. There were lines not to be crossed, rocks not to be tossed.

Perhaps that was why we gravitated toward each other. We understood this. We were alike in that way. We did what was expected of us. We followed the rules. We performed our duties unfailingly.

Stig being here was not expected, and it was strange seeing him in these surroundings, in my domain.

I reached for my dressing gown where I had discarded it at the end of the bed and slipped it on, tightening the belt around my waist as he gazed at me with feverishly bright eyes.

“Should I not have come?” he demanded with a snort that conveyed his incredulity. He paced a short, hard line to the left, then the right. “Should I have stayed away? Is that what you think I would do?” His voice was biting in a way I had never heard from him. Especially when addressing me. He was always kind. Always gentle. Always listened when I spoke—and when I did not.

I shook my head in response, ignoring the bleak squeezing in my chest. “You should not be here.” My world had been upended. The person I had been at the start of this day was not the same one standing before him now. There were many things I didn’t know, but that much I knew to be true.

Stig surged forward then and closed his hands around my arms. “You cannot befinewith this.” His gaze burned brightly into me, the rich brown molten, lit from an unseen fire. “This is not fair. Not right at all, Tamsyn.”

“Stig,” I said carefully. “It doesn’t matter what I want.” I didn’t utter this with any disgruntlement or with a low opinion of myself. I knew my life held value. I served a purpose. It was only that my preferences were never a priority.

“It matters.Youmatter.”

I gave him a look. “Really? It’s never been about me. You know that.”Hehad told me that all those years ago. The whipping girl did not belong to herself. She belonged to the royal family.

I was theirs, bound to them until they released me, free only when they declared it.

They would never declare it. I knew that now.

“You cannot do this—”

“How can Inot? I do as I’m told.” Always. And so did he. That was who we were. “Why are you acting this way?” He had never once challenged me to go against my parents, or the role that had been decided for me since infancy. Quite the opposite. I resented this from him. Resentedhim. It was as though the book I knew, with all its familiar words and characters, with its satisfying ending, had suddenly rearranged itself on the pages... the story rewritten into something else. Why would he fill my head with such thoughts? With thoughts of rebellion? Why was he making this harder than it had to be? “Why are you doing this to me?”

“Me?What am I doing to you? I’m only urging you to think about yourself, to put yourself first.”

Now?Now he was advising that? He thought he was doing me a favor? I shook my head fiercely. “No. Don’t. You’re not being fair.”

“I’m not fair? I’ll tell you what is not fair. You marrying that barbarian. You giving yourself, giving the rest of your life to—”

“For my kingdom. For the people of Penterra,” I cut in. “No less than what you would do.” He was captain of the guard. A soldier. That was his duty. He had always taken great pride in that. He should understand. I shouldn’t have to convince him.

“They demand too much of you this time.” His fingers flexed where they held me. “They’re asking for your life.”

“As a soldier you risk no less.”

“You’re not a soldier!” he exploded, and then compressed his lips as though regretting the outburst. He sent a wary look to my bedchamber door as though expecting someone to barge inside.

“That is precisely what I am. What I have been doing all these years...”

His chest lifted on a rough breath. “This will be worse. Worse than anything you’ve endured before.”