Page 137

"Is that what you call chattering teeth and blue lips?"

"I think you're being a bit dramatic."

"Of course." His voice carried that dry tone I'd come to recognize as amusement. "Though you seemed rather eager to accept my help at the time."

Heat crept up my neck as I remembered what it felt like with his arms around me, his warmth rushing across my skin. "Yes, well. Life or death situation and all that."

"Indeed." Something flickered in his golden eyes before he turned away, scanning the chamber. "Three tunnels. Any preference?"

I stepped into the path in the middle as a silence fell between us, broken only by the distant drip of water echoing through stone. I studied his profile in the darkness.

"Were you ever planning to tell me?" I finally asked. "About who you thought I was? Or were you waiting for the perfect moment to throw it at Urkin?"

His shoulders tensed slightly. "I wasn't certain. Not until you mentioned the name Fiandrial."

"But you suspected." It wasn't a question.

"There were... signs." He turned to face me, something almost careful in his expression.

"And you didn't think I deserved to know?"

"Would you have believed me?" His voice was quiet, but it carried weight. "I wasn't even sure myself until you told me your name."

"Princess was the first name you ever called me," I shot back.

He was full on smirking now as he ran his hand through his hair, causing it to fall in messy wisps over his forehead. "I wish I could say I'd known all this time. But truly, I called you aPrincessbecause you were acting like one."

I stopped, turning to him and narrowing my eyes. "Seriously?"

"You were in some monstrous version of a ballgown, your hair was in perfect little tidy ringlets, and you began pouting immediately upon waking. What was I supposed to think?" He raised an eyebrow, but that same insufferable amusement had returned to his face, a dimple cracking his features.

"You had quite literally just stolen me away from my home and locked me in a tower. I wasn't pouting—I wasenraged. I wanted to kill you," I countered.

"The thought crossed my mind as well." His smirk grew into a smile as he took a step towards me and whispered. "Several times."

I shoved him back a few feet and continued walking, hiding a grin as he chuckled from behind.

"And then you isolated me for weeks, were rude to me any time we dared some semblance of a conversation, assaulted me with your shadows." I carried on as we moved through the tunnel.

"See, that sounds like pouting again," he said as he stepped in line with me, arm brushing against mine. "Princess."

I jabbed him in the side with my elbow. "Don't start that. I might have preferred it when it held no meaning." My eyes found the ground and I couldn't help the sudden onslaught of discomfort that title now brought. The weight of it.

"I know this was never what you imagined for yourself. That you've been held at a certain expectation for far longer than crossing into Umbrathia. And this only brings more of that." I felt his eyes on me, the lightness of the previous conversation now falling into something more serious. "But for what it's worth, you're more deserving than most."

"Why do you think that?" I asked, my voice quiet.

"Because you put others above yourself. It's a rare quality."

"I don't know if I do that." The words fell out before I could stop them. "Maybe I just find myself in situations where it's convenient to do so. Maybe it's not really my choice, in the end."

Aether stopped, his fingers sliding around my arm as he turned me towards him. "You saved Lael," he said, his eyes piercing through me.

"He appeared on the ground before me. I wasn't seeking him out," I argued back, shrugging my shoulders. Suddenly, the intensity of his stare was too much, and I looked away as his fingers began traveling up my arm.

"Most people would have left him there. You didn't. Most people would have never signed up for the Void—to face something so horrible for an entire realm they didn't know." His hand was moving across my shoulder, guiding my eyes back to his. There was a certain determination in his whisper that nearly made my knees weak. "Everything you've done since you've been inUmbrathia has been selfless. I've never wanted to know someone so much."

His hand slid up to my neck, thumb grazing my jaw, and everything else faded away. The simple touch sent electricity down my spine, making my breath catch. His eyes darkened as they dropped to my lips, and something molten rushed through my veins.