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Asinia snorted. “Your brother reminded all of us that he’d sent a letter to the castle, instructing you to bring her with you when you left.”

Her words at the city gates ran on a loop through my head.

“This is because people believe I’m the hybrid heir, isn’t it? You and your brother…the fae king… You want to use me somehow.”

I should have felt satisfied. This was, after all, proof that Prisca cared. Instead, fury burned in my gut. Conreth was still playing his games. I’d told Prisca he couldn’t truly punish me—at least not now, while we were on the brink of war. But he knew to strike where I was weakest.

I refused to allow this any longer.

Asinia nudged her horse, trotting back to the others. I watched as she said something that made Prisca laugh some more, her head tipping back in the dappled sunlight.

I wasn’t entirely sure when this woman had become as necessary to me as the air in my lungs.

Maybe it was when she finally understood how to use her power—and used it to freeze me in place so she could kick me in the balls.

Perhaps it was the moment I realized she’d never gotten on that ship. And she was instead in the most dangerous place she could possibly have been as she fought to free her best friend.

It might have been when I saw her dying in that fucking castle and realized I was so completely out of my mind, it might as well have been me who was poisoned.

Maybe it was the way her voice had shaken with rage when she’d learned of my life in that camp when I’d only seen nine winters. Her fury that she couldn’t turn back time and rescue the boy I’d been.

There were so many moments that had shown me who she was. Had demonstrated her bravery, loyalty, and cunning.

I was tired of fighting it. It was time to make sure my wildcat knew I’d wanted her from the start. And I would want her until the end.

* * *

That night, we made camp in a small clearing. Lorian and the others were much more vigilant than the guards Conreth had sent with us. When I asked him why, he said it was because they’d spent years traveling through the fae lands, and they knew just what kind of creatures hid in the forests, waiting to prey on unsuspecting travelers.

“We need to talk,” Lorian murmured in my ear after dinner. I shivered at the feel of his warm breath on my skin, even as I slitted my eyes at him.

“What about?”

“Do you truly want to do this here?”

I glanced around the clearing. The others were gathered in small groups, eating and chatting, but I caught more than a few interested looks directed our way.

“I talked to Asinia,” Lorian rumbled.

“And what did you talk to Asinia about?”

His eyes hardened. “About how Conreth told you I only brought you to the fae lands because he had ordered it.”

“What is your point?”

He watched me, his green eyes bright. “Check my saddlebag, wildcat.”

I didn’t move. “Why?”

“Scared?”

Annoyance flickered through me, and I stalked over to his saddlebag, riffling through it until my hand brushed parchment. I pulled the letters free.

They were dated. And they were from the time we were in the Eprothan castle.

I glanced over my shoulder, but Lorian was just watching me. So I scanned the first letter.

It was from someone named C. Conreth. He was…berating Lorian for the way he’d threatened the healer when I was poisoned.