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I turned to him, trying hard to keep the tears swimming in my eyes from falling. What a mess I’d made.

“It’s not ideal, not what either of us would have dreamed, but I know my father very well. You’ll never leave this city alone and live for more than two days. This plan”—he took my hand, his own inked with the bear claw tattoos that signified his house—“it’s the best way.”

“You don’t deserve this,” I whispered. “You deserve what your heart wants. We barely know one another.”

“What I know of you, I like and admire. My family has failed you so many times. I want to right those wrongs.” A small smile curled his lips. “Plus, if I’m being honest, I could do worse.” He winked.

My laugh surprised me and lifted a bit of the heaviness pressing down on my heart. Two figures joined me on each side.

Clemencia and Anna, my friends, watched me carefully. I met Anna’s gaze first. Her normally upturned eyes were blue and round rather than their usual dark brown hue. All thanks to Sir Caelo’s glamour. With the knight’s magic, my human friend looked fae, pointy ears and all. Still, in the way she regarded me, I recognized my oldest and dearest friend.

“Do it,” she said. “You have to.”

“I agree with her,” Clemencia whispered. She, too, was still in disguise. Blonde with yellow wings and a large nose, rather than dark brown hair, blue wings, and pert nose she’d been born with. “You won’t be safe anywhereelse, my lady. Not from King Magnus. Nor the Blood Court.”

And nor would they. Unless I wanted my friends to die with me, I had only one choice.

I swallowed and turned back to the prince. “I will.”

He arched an eyebrow. “Will what? You took so long deciding that I’ve already forgotten what I asked.”

I rolled my eyes. “I’ll marry you, Prince Vale.”

“Lucky for you, Vale,” Sir Caelo said, his tone light and teasing. His violet eyes, courtesy of the knight’s own glamour, twinkled. “Otherwise, I would have never let you hear the end of it that a commoner denied your proposal.”

The prince smirked at his friend as he rose from where he’d gone down on one knee. “We’ll need to find a staret.”

“Not any old staret,” Lord Riis said. “You will require theGrand Staret.He’ll be in the Tower of the Living and the Dead. That is where you’ll wed—standing before the Heart Drassil. There is no greater sign of legitimacy than being wed by the most revered holy fae. Before the great northern tree.”

I inhaled a sharp breath of frigid air. A Drassil tree.

No one else knew what had happened moments before. How the whispers of the Faetia, the souls of our fae ancestors who could live in Drassil trees, spoke to me.

Nor did anyone know I’d made a deal with those departed souls. One that had saved Anna’s life—for a price.

What that price was, I had no idea. Nor did I regret my choice. Not even when faced with circumstances such as these.

I wanted freedom, had risked my life multiple times for it. Instead, I’d soon wed a prince and live in a castle, in proximity to King Magnus, a powerful fae who hated me.

But maybe all I had to do was stay alive long enough for Prince Vale and me to plan a better escape. Inside, hope rose like a spring well.

Yes, that was what I’d do. I’d take more time and concoct the perfect plan that would win me freedomandfree the prince to find his soulmate. The lingering heaviness in my chest lifted. There was a way forward. But it wouldn’t be done tonight.

“We should go,” Prince Vale said. “Minutes lost might mean the difference between life and death. I?—”

Racing hooves sounded down the street, around the corner. The prince tensed, surely thinking the same as me. We were too late. Somehow word had already gotten to the king, and he’d sent knights after me.

But then three horses appeared, all bearing riders. One with pink hair and wide blue eyes.

“There you are!” Princess Saga, the youngest Aaberg, cried out.

“Sister,” the prince’s voice came out strangled. “What are you doing here?”

“I saw what happened with the vampire, and Neve, and the proposal,” she explained, forcing a shiver down my spine.

Princess Saga had not been present. Nor had she been among those watching from the rooftops. No, she was a seer—one of the rarest and most eerie powers a fae could have.

“And you thought you’d do what?” her brother asked.