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“I went hunting,” Wren offered, because it was the truth. It felt like a thousand years ago had passed since she’d decided to run off into the forest in search of game. So much had happened.

Vienne waved at her. “Yet you have come back emptyhanded! What did we all say to you? Game is scarce in the forest! Are you really so arrogant that you believed you could somehow magic a rabbit or a pheasant or a deer out of nowhere?”

Wren kept her tone even. “I’m not so arrogant to believe that I alone could find meat for the people. I had nothing else to do and I wanted to be useful. There was a stag—”

“Then where is it?” her aunt cut in.

She swallowed down her ire and managed, “Something stopped me from being able to fell it.”

Bram huffed and tossed his hands in the air. “I thought you were supposed to be a far superior hunter to anyone else in the rebellion. Yet when you have astagin your sights, you lose it?”

“Like I said—”

Bram prowled forward into her space, his features contorted in fury. “So much of our bloody fight hinges onyoubeing a piece we can play, yet you flagrantly ignored thatagainto run off as if nothing matters but what you want! You’re just a foolish little girl who—”

Wren held her ground and kept her hands at her sides. Just barely. Boy, did she want to knock the look off his face. “If you would just listen—”

“Bram is right,” Vienne said, face hardening. “I’d thought I was too harsh on you, banning you from leaving camp, but all of his suspicions and fears were right on point.”

“What do you mean?” Wren asked, proud that her voice didn’t waver.

Her aunt pushed away from the table and pointed a finger at Wren. “You’re becoming a liability. I thought my sister had raised you better but…”

“Don’t you dare,” Wren said gutturally, stepping away from Bram. She glared at her aunt. “You don’t get to speak of my mother. You may share blood with her but you are not my family. Family would never treat each other this way. It’s shameful.”

Vienne jerked as if she’d been slapped. “What is shameful is your actions and lack of responsibility. You’re leaving us no choice but to restrain—”

“I met Prince Arrik,” she snapped.

Finally,finallythe lecture stopped. Everyone froze, all eyes on her: Vienne, Bram, Ever, and Leif. Leif recovered first, blinking away shock before observing, “You’ve already run into the soldiers in the forest, haven’t you?”

Wren nodded, feeling sick to her stomach. “I walked into a bloody trap set for a deer. Stupid, I know, but I was watching the stag. I barely got out in time to run from them.”

Vienne’s eyes narrowed. “And the prince?”

“We…” Wren struggled through the memory, trying to find the right words. Now she had some distance from the situation it was easier to start putting things together. Prince Arrik hadn’t wanted his soldiers to see her. He hadn’t gone for a maiming blow or even a knockout blow when they’d fought. Once again, he’d tried to entice her.

She pursed her lips, ignoring Bram scowling in her direction.

In the Verlantian palace, what seemed like a million years ago, the prince had wanted a truce with Wren. He’d wanted her on his side—acting the obedient wife in public whilst being herself around him and only him.

Why? Just what was he planning?

Rebellion?

“I think he has plans for the throne,” Wren concluded, speaking her suspicions aloud for the first time and in the process, realizing how true they sounded.

Ever snorted. “Everyone has designs on the throne. That is nothing new. Try again, Princess.”

Wren ran through her encounter with her husband once again. Arrik hadn’t wanted to bring Wren in because that meant she’d be under Soren’s watch once more, likely imprisoned. Why didn’t he want her to be underneath the king’s thumb?

“He wants me.” She looked around the room. “I don’t think he wants to see me hurt.”

Bram went bug-eyed, the tendons in his hands threatening to snap. “Oh, youthinkthis? That’s all right, then, we’ll take your word for it! He is a master manipulator,Princess. He has killed hundreds without remorse. I knew he’d corrupted you in the palace.”

“You have no idea what I went through to survive in the palace because of the prince,” she spat. “If you’d shut your mouth for a bloody moment and listen to me, I’ll tell you the whole story!”

Don’t let your anger get the best of you.