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“You want to keep it,” she said matter-of-factly.

“I do.” No point in pretending otherwise.

She snorted. “It takes a special kind of stupid to actually consider bonding with a time mage.”

“Well, listening to you, I’ve never been very smart.” Skye studied her face. There was color in her cheeks that wasn’t just from the cold. She kept her eyes to the ground, fingers busy picking flowers. “Talk to me, Tink.”

“Is that not what we’re doing?”

He sat up. “Taly,” he said when she wouldn’t look at him. “I’m not expecting you to fall into my arms here, but if I ask you how you feel about forever, you’ve got to do more than just call me stupid and avoid eye contact. I’m getting understandably concerned.”

She tugged at a stubborn stem, brow furrowing in concentration before it finally yielded. She sat with it for a beat, then said, “I think it’s a bad idea.”

A crack splintered open in his chest. He exhaled, slow.

“I think,” she went on, fidgeting with a dandelion. “I think that if we did this, it would put a target on your back. The sameone that’s on mine. Soulbonded mates always find each other—we’ve already proven that. Vaughn already tried to extort it, and we’re still a long way out from being fully bonded.”

Skye was already shaking his head, temper stirring.

She was worried abouthim. Not herself—him.

As if she didn’t think he’d already chosen this. As if she didn’t know the danger went both ways.

He was a prince. Everything he’d ever dared to love had a target painted on it.

“Are we really doing this again? Fuck, Taly, when are you going to get it through that stubborn head of yours thatI’m not going anywhere?”

“I didn’t say that you were.” She picked another flower and began weaving the stems together. “It’s still something to consider, though. The bond is only going to get stronger, and the danger to you will only grow. Others will try to use you to get to me. It would be stupid to close that door.”

“What door?”

“The one that lets you go back. You’re committing treason just sitting here with me, knowing what I am, but your family—they have enough power to make that go away. They could bring you back to Ghislain, if that were something you ever wanted.”

“It won’t be,” he insisted.

“Maybe not,” she conceded, adjusting a twist of violet. “But that door closes if we’re bonded, because then you’ll be part me. And there’s nothing that can save you from that. You say this is what you want, but what if I’m gone? What if I die?”

“You won’t.”

“I could. It’s harder now, but it’s not impossible. And anyone who figures out what I am is going to want me dead. It’s easy to risk everything for something. But what if that something doesn’t make it to the end? If that happened, I think you might be grateful to still have the option to go back to a normal life.”

Skye’s hands curled into fists. It wasn’t meant to be cruel. It was a simple, reasoned analysis of the grim reality in which they lived.

There was just one thing missing.

“What do you want?”

Taly’s fingers stilled on the crown of flowers taking shape in her hands.

“What doyouwant, Taly? You’ve talked a lot about what you think I should want and the dangers tome, but you haven’t said a single word about how you feel.”

“I…” she started, then stopped, frowning like she didn’t understand the question. Had never even stopped to consider it.

“C’mon, Tink.” He reached up and touched her cheek, smiling when she leaned into it. “Just talk to me. That’s all we’re doing right now—just talking.”

She gave a slight nod, thinking. Stalling. He couldn’t be sure.

“I don’t know,” she said after a long moment. “I don’t know how I feel about it.”