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“Is there anything else I need to look out for? Any spontaneous enamoration syndrome or gut-wrenching pain I should expect?”

Turning on his heels, Silas raises his brows at me. “What happened with Dahlia and me was a tragedy. It happened more often than not that the un-mating failed, and when it did, the reunion was something even the most experienced of Crows only spoke about in hushed voices.”

“What does that mean?” I follow him a few steps down the path leading from the arena, waiting for an answer I can work with.

“I don’t know, Queen of Crows. You tell me when you figure it out.”

I’m stumbling through the gardens, mulling Silas’s words over in my mind, when Recienne pops up, blocking my path with his tall, broad form.

“Shouldn’t you be resting?” Genuine concern tugs at his features, and he’s offering an arm, obviously under the impression I’ll collapse any moment. I sure feel like I’m on the verge of exhaustion. My shoulder is throbbing, my heart is aching, and … there is this tingle in the pit of my stomach when I glance up at the Fairy King, meeting his golden eyes.

Beautiful eyes... And his mouth. Full and soft and?—

A mental slap on my wrist reminds me that this is the process of un-mating. I’d probably find the statue of ahorned and hoofed fairy attractive right now if put face to face with it if Silas is to be believed.

“Everything all right, Your Majesty?” Recienne gives a charming bow of his head, and when I don’t respond, says, “Let me take you back to your room.”

With a broad, masculine hand, he encloses mine, spiriting me back to solitary confinement.

Only, my room isn’t solitary. Recienne bows at his waist, opening the door with a small smile. “Your King asked earlier if I’d seen you, and when I stumbled across you in the park, I thought I’d bring you back where you belong.”

He doesn’t mean the room, though; I can tell by the sparkle in his eyes.

From behind, Myron’s gaze weighs like ounces of the glimmering stone this palace is made of, but he doesn’t move, doesn’t speak as I bid the Fairy King a good day and tear my eyes away from his pretty face.

When I finally turn around, Myron is leaning against the windowsill, hands braced left and right of his hips and spine stiff like he’s expecting a physical blow. “Herinor said he talked to you.”

I don’t dare meet his eyes, but I do note the purple smudges beneath, speaking of sleepless nights and endless worries.

“He did.”

Myron’s cheeks are so pale I could swear he’s a ghost. But a ghost doesn’t flick his fingers to brush back my hair like with invisible fingers. I shudder under the touch, and Myron flinches.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to… I—” Searching for words isn’t something I ever see the Crow King do, but he’s at a loss now as my eyes find his at last, and pain and sorrow fill the ocean depths of his.

“Erina burned my mate mark.” The anger in my voice surprises me more than anything.

Myron’s sorrow turns to fury, and from the corner of his eyes, black veins creep toward the ocean blue of his irises. So fast I can barely tell it’s there, he turns his head to the side.

His whole body is shaking with barely restrained power as he pushes away from the windowsill, swallowing once, twice. “He tried to take you from me, Ayna.” He’s fully facing me now, and I can see it in the way his gaze skims my form, up and down and up and down, that he’s not suffering the same symptoms I’m going through. He isn’t scared to look at me because he fears the emptiness yawning like a chasm in his chest. He’s burning with ire and with all the feelings that have been squandered with the heat of the torch to my shoulder. He’s burning for both of us.

“You said you’d be behind me.”

His eyes shutter with lack of understanding.

“At the estate. You said you’d hold them off and be right behind us.”

And you weren’t.

The thought runs deep, slicing like a sharp blade.

Myron’s anger gutters as fast as it flared. “I was going to be. We were tricked.”

“I know.” It’s a whisper, but I take a step toward him when he leans back against the windowsill, the darkness in his eyes gone.

“Erina knew we’d be coming.”

“And he was ready to break you in the only way he knew he could.”