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“Holy shit!” Tannin breathed. “Did you just use magic?”

“Yeah, I—”

Jax suddenly bolted upright with a hoarse gasp, the surprise of it making me stumble backward and fall on my butt.

“What the—” His head turned wildly as he took in his surroundings, then his eyes fell on me, and outrage flared his nostrils. “Who the fuck are you? What are you doing to me?”

I was too shocked to reply, to say anything in defense for myself.

“Hey, brother,” Tannin said, putting a hand firmly on Jax’s shoulder. “This is Aliya, and she happens to have just saved your life. She saved us both. You could show her some respect.”

Jax continued to glare at me with hateful suspicion, and I felt small and foolish.

“What happened?” he barked at Tannin.

“We were attacked by a pack of cusith in the forest,” Tannin explained in a much calmer tone than I would’ve been capable of.

“Yes, I remember that,” he snapped. “But how did we gethere?”

“You got badly injured in the fight,” Tannin continued with a patience reminiscent of pacifying an unruly child. “I carried you here, to Varinya. The village was completely empty, and I banged on the castle door, expecting to find nothing and no one, but this nice young woman here let us in and tended to our wounds. She healed you.”

Jax eyed him warily, then slid his slitted gaze back to me, assessing me. He jutted his chin out. “Where is everyone? The villagers, the castle guards, the staff?”

I licked my dry lips, struggling to find my voice. “Gone.”

“Gone?” he snapped. “What do you mean, gone?”

“Th-they all died. There was a plague. I-I’m the only one who survived.”

His expression softened slightly as he mulled that information over, his tense posture loosening. “The king and queen?”

I nodded mutely.

He huffed a sigh. “Well, I’m sorry. What a terrible tragedy.” He glanced briefly at Tannin, then back at me. “Who were you, you know, before the plague?”

In the corner of my eye, I saw Tannin tense, making me hesitate in my response. “I... I was—am—the princess of Varinya.”

Hostility returned to light Jax’s eyes. “The princess?”

Tannin’s grip tightened on his shoulder. “Yes. Aliya is the princess. And she was kind enough to offer us shelter and assistance when we needed it most. We owe her a great debt.”

“Debt, my a—”

“Jax!” Tannin cautioned loudly, cutting him off.

Jax’s mouth pressed tightly closed, his jaw clenching. After a long breath, he said through gritted teeth, “Thank you for offering us your assistance,Princess.” He said my title like it was a filthy word.

I didn’t know how to react. It had been so long since I’d spoken to anyone, but even then, I wasn’t accustomed to being addressed so harshly, so rudely. I could only assume they had very humble backgrounds, that this Jax especially had poor manners, and maybe that wasn’t his fault. It wasn’t every day the common man had an audience with royalty, and it was my duty to act my station and show grace.

Blushing at his once again exposed nudity, I reached for the other set of clothes I’d fetched last night. “Here. These were my father’s. They should fit you.”

He snatched them from my hands, then began to climb into them without a speck of shame for my presence, but I turned my head anyway.

It was difficult not to peek. Despite his brusque and hostile demeanor, he was gorgeous, and the dreams that had plagued me all night only fueled my temptation. It wasn’t every day that aprincessgot to see such raw, carnal beauty, and I was pretty much at the end of my rope as it was.

How long would it be before I got to see a naked man again, if ever?

But by the time my resilience failed, and I turned my head, he was already buttoning up his shirt. I internally kicked myself for not visually gorging on the whole ordeal while I’d had the chance, especially since he hadn’t seemed to care if I saw him naked or not.