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“Don’t forget to shower, though,” Anna piped up, the smirk on her face growing. “After all thathard workin the woods, you need a good washing down.”

“Who are you and what have you done with my bestfriend?!” Neve barked out a laugh as her cheeks, already slightly red from her pleasure, took on a deeper shade. “How improper!”

“I know. It feels so good not worrying about what I’m about to say!” The human popped a piece of cured meat into her mouth. “I’m so free. And besides, did you think we didn’t hear you scream? Multiple times!”

Clemencia’s hand flew over her mouth as she smothered a laugh.

Neve shook her head, clearly more amused than upset. “Well, you deserve the freedom, even if I am mortified at the cost.”

“I do,” Anna replied. “And you need to hurry. I suppose I do too.” She stood. “Seeing as I’m coming with you.”

Neve’s lips parted. “You’re sure?”

I didn’t know this woman well, but she had a clubbed foot. I hadn’t noticed it hindering her to any great degree, but Neve’s question made me wonder.

“I want to,” Anna said, her chin lifting. “You’re fine with it, right?”

“I am if you are,” Neve answered sincerely. “But we might be heading into danger. Roar will not be happy to see me.”

“After what he did, he should fear your wrath,” I said. “Mine too, for putting my wife in harm’s way.”

“You weren’t married at that time,” Clemencia said, pulling the fur cloak she wore tighter around her as a gale swooped into the courtyard, “but that was so romantic, I’ll let it slide. And for the record, I’m furious with him too.”

Nevetook my hand. “We have to get ready.”

“Caelo is coming as well.” I’d found my best friend before joining Neve in the woods this morning and told him everything. He’d jumped at the chance to leave Riis Tower and seize a bit of action.

“Happy to have another sword.” Neve glanced at Luccan, though she said nothing.

I suspected she wished Luccan could come, probably Thantrel too, but the Riis males had to remain at the Tower in case another Courting Festival event was called. There was no use in them earning the king’s ire on an errand to confront Lord Roar.

That day might come when they would have to choose between my wife and the demands of the fae who had raised me as his son—but that day was not today.

“No shared shower,” Neve said as we left the courtyard. “There’s no time.”

“Cruel female,” I teased.

“I don’t like it any more than you do,” she assured me as we climbed the steps and then broke apart to go to our separate rooms.

As neither of us had packed anything before a vampire ran us out of my suite in Frostveil Castle, we had only borrowed items. Those Emilia had offered up, and those that the Riis family had to spare—of which there was plenty. Lord Riis had even given the ladies dresses that used to belong to his mother, though I’d seen them wearing trousers and tunics more often. More practical in the ever deepening cold.

I opted for the Riis clothing. It fit me better thanHarald Falk’s old attire, and I was not ready yet to wear the emblem of the white hawk. No matter how much I loved his daughter.

I sighed, wishing I’d said those words in the woods. They’d been on the tip of my tongue, and though I’d known the moment I’d chosen her over the king that I’d fallen in love, I felt resistance in uttering them.

For I loved the male who had raised me too, but it was a hard kind of love. One born through the turns of wanting to please him, wishing to be loved back. In faint glimmers, I had been.

It was a love born of obligation and fulfilling legacy, two things the king prized.

A hard, cold love that didn’t always feel like love.

And yet, I still wanted his love. More than that, I didn’t want to betray him.

But in choosing her, I already was.

“There is no right way,” I muttered as I gatheredSkeldaand looped her sheath through my belt. “Someone will always get hurt, but it will never again be Neve.”

Chapter 51