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Without a word, he opened the small black box.

I forgot to breathe. Surrounded by white satin was an arm ring—nearly identical to his, a royal. Golden rope with two roaring bear heads on the ends. Kage took up the ring and slid it over my wrist.

“Fierce as the bears in the Greenwood. That is what you are.” He yanked on my wrist to draw me ever closer. “Tell anyone I said that, and I’ll deny it until I die.”

The scene faded to cheers and shouts of the newest Soturi to enter the ranks of battle mage.

When new shapes, new moments, took hold, pain lanced through my heart. A deep despair that broke over my spine.

Tears glistened over my cheeks. I hugged my waist that had grown a few curves. Still young, maybe sixteen, but I kept my empty stare on the river and the meadows across from them where a mournful procession of darkly clad mages carried two new heartstone tombs.

“Adira.”

My eyes tightened. More tears spilled out over my lashes. “Go away. Please.”

“Adira.” A young man now, bulkier on his shoulders, spun me into him. Kage had his hair tied off his neck, he’d dressed in a blue tunic with gold trim that reminded me of the night sky. And he did not give me the choice before he held me against his chest.

He did not let go when the sobs shook my body, when I screamed and raged at the goddess for taking them from me. My parents were blood mages. Strong and powerful. They were warriors, and a blood fever that infected half the land robbed them too soon.

“How could we not find a cure?” I gripped my fists around his tunic.

Kage tightened his arms around me. “My mother thinks the power in their blood amplified the fever since that is what it targeted. It was much the same for Beth. We had Elvish herbs, even a tonic from the Isramorta. It spread too swiftly, Wildling.”

After a moment, I sniffed and pulled away. I left the prince’s side and sat beside the river, knees tucked against my chest. “You can go, Prince Kage. I’ll be fine.”

I closed my eyes when the sound of feet shuffling over grass filled my ears. It stung, but I could not fault him for leaving. I’d asked him to go. Until his long body sat next to me. Kage spared me a look, then mimicked my position, and stared ahead, simply being there.

Our shapes blurred into another moment in a forgotten past.

“What has you so out of sorts?” I looked like I did now only without the tattoos on my fingers. My hair was tied back with a strip of leather. I sat atop a fence post, eating a cup of sweet honey ice from the kitchens. My dress was simple, but billowed in the breeze.

Kage, much more like himself—broad and tall—paced in front of me.

He let out a long breath, then all at once spun on me. I dropped my sweet when his palms cupped my face and he kissed me. A rough kiss at first. Our teeth clacked, my lips were frigid from my ice, and I stiffened in a bit of stun.

Slowly, Kage parted my lips. His tongue waswarm and demanding. My fingers dug into his hair, tugging at the roots, and I devoured his moan of pleasure.

Time went unnoticed, but when he broke the kiss, our lips were raw and swollen.

Kage pressed his brow to mine, breaths heavy. “Forgive me, I ought to have asked.”

“What was that?” I whispered, stroking my hands down his cheeks.

Kage blinked, his dark eyes gleamed like a bit of moonlight filled the shadows. “I want you. I have for some time but have been too much of a coward to speak, Wildling.”

“That was foolish of you.”

Kage’s jaw pulsed; he looked away, embarrassed.

I grinned and pulled his mouth near again. “For we could’ve been doing this for much longer.”

When I kissed him again, smoke dragged us away to laughter and levity. Cyland stood in front of a cheering crowd, dressed in a pale top and polished boots, he kissed a man beneath a blossom coated bower as though the rest of us were not here.

Kage’s palm squeezed my knee and he leaned in. “That is us soon.”

I scoffed, tracing the curve of his ear. “Maybe I’ll change my mind.”

A low growl rumbled from his throat. “Not a chance.”