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“I… Uh…” Elena struggled to form full words.

“Too excited to speak?” He laughed. “That’s about what I expected. I’ll give your confirmation first thing in the morning. They’ll be very—”

“Wait!” Elena said. “I… I need to think about it first.”

“I… What?” Arccoo said, the shock in his words visible on his face.

Elena was just as shocked as he was at what she said. But with Rylan now in the equation, she couldn’t just say yes so quickly. She also couldn’t bring herself to say a flat no, either.

“You’ll think about it?”

“Yes… I… I need some time before I can give you an answer.”

“Do you understand the offer before you?”

“Yes, I do.”

“Carmen said it’s all you’ve ever wanted. That you’ve been working toward something like this your entire life.”

“It is… It really is…”

“This doesn’t happen every day, Elena. You know that, right?”

“I do. I promise, I do.”

“Then what exactly is there to think about? How are you not screaming yes while jumping up and down?”

“If you’d given me this offer six months ago, I’d be doing exactly that. Hell, if you gave me this offer a week ago, I might have done just that. But… everything has changed.”

“Everything has changed? What exactly has changed?”

“Everything,” Elena muttered. “Everything.”

She then looked away from the prince, across the party to where Rylan stood with her sisters. They were all laughing and sipping their drinks. She was excited to see how well he was fitting in with them.

“Oh…” the prince said after following her gaze. “Thateverything.”

“Yeah…”

“Believe me, I get how that can change everything. It happened when I met Carmen.”

“For as long as I’ve lived on Thryal, being recognized by the Royal Institute was all I ever wanted. But now I found something else to want. Someone else to want.”

“I see.”

“Where Rylan goes, that’s where I want to be, too.”

As Elena said the words, she realized the truth. She’d never been so confident in anything she’d ever said in her life. No scientific equation or experiment had ever made more sense than how she felt around Rylan.

He was what she wanted. Everything else would be secondary. She could happily work on whatever little project in the kingdom Rylan was assigned next. As long as she was beside him, it would be the right place to be.

“And that’s how you feel?” Arccoo asked. “Absolutely?”

“Absolutely.”

“Hmm.” Arccoo thought for a moment. “That can be arranged.”

“Excuse me?”