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Seph knew Alder needed to do this, but she still didn’t like the idea of him leaving. “But what about your…condition?” she whispered.

Alder combed a hand through his thick black hair, leaving it in marginal disarray. “To say I’m unconcerned would be a lie, but I don’t see any other option. We are swiftly running out of time. This needs to be done, and I am the only one who can do it. I’ll manage. I’ve done it long enough.”

She could see how it unsettled him, the idea that he might lose control and hurt someone along the way, though looking at him now—at his handsome face—she never could have guessed he lived with something so monstrous. “I wish I could go with you.”

“It will be good for you to spend some time with your kin.”Without me, he didn’t say.

“I suppose,” she said.

“And if anyone gives you trouble, just set Evora on them.”

This made Seph chuckle.

Alder seemed to make up his mind about something, and he pushed off the rail to stand before her. Seph gazed up at him, and he looked down at her, and she knew that if anyone were watching them now, they would know this heir of Light had already given partiality to the prince before her. Especially when he cupped her cheek and pressed his lips to her brow. His lips lingered there, and while it was sweet, Seph wanted more.

He pulled away too soon and took a step back, as if he didn’t trust himself to be near her any longer. “I need to go.”

They stared at each other across that distance, and Seph felt a very physical pull upon her person. Something that twisted and knotted and would never be undone. She had the sudden urge to give him something as he had given her—something to take with him so that he did not forget.

Alder turned to go.

“Wait,” she said, and Alder glanced back just as she was reaching her hand into her corset, between her breasts.

Where Rys’s little ring rested.

“What are you doing?” Alder asked lowly. His neck splotched red, and his eyes were molten.

She pulled the necklace up and over her head as she stalked to Alder, who stood as still as a statue, especially as she reached up and draped the necklace over his head. “It is not a letter, but it’s something.”

“Josephine…” He grabbed her hand as she was pulling it away. “I can’t take this. This belonged to Rys, and he?—”

She squeezed his hand and smiled up at him. “He gave it to me, and now I am giving it to you. It brought you back to me once, and perhaps it will prevent you from losing yourself like it helped you before. I probably should have given it to you sooner. May it keep you safe so that you return to me in one beautiful piece.”

Emotion clouded his eyes, and he brought her hands to his lips. “I don’t deserve you.”

“I know.”

He smiled wickedly before he pressed his lips firmly to her hand, and when he looked back at her, all his humor was gone. Something raw and earnest and vulnerable burned in its place, and Seph’s heart stuttered.

“If the Fates should see fit to bring me back and end this curse, then I swear to spend the rest of my days doing everything I can to deserve you.”

Seph’s heart was a hammer in her chest.

He dragged his thumb over her knuckles, sending a shiver through her body, and in a swift and decisive rush, he released her hand and was gone.

The letter that Seph was supposed to savefor laterhad been tucked away for much longer than she hoped. After Alder left, she’d taken his letter to her chambers, promptly informed the priestess not to worry about translating the coat for her, and brought Alder’s translations with her to the council hall, trying to make sense of the characters or find a pattern in them. Meanwhile, the elders debated different enchantments under Serinbor’s and Evora’s quiet observation, though none of them worked.

Seph’s head ached by the time she returned to her chambers, but she forgot all about the pain when she spotted that little innocent paper peeking out from beneath her pillow. She set down the pages of Alder’s script and dashed over to her bed, pulling out the sealed document he had left.

The wax had been stamped with the emblem of a tree. An alder tree, Seph realized, and she eagerly slipped her finger through, broke the seal, and opened the single sheet.

My exquisite little arrow,

I have been a selfish boor the whole of my wretched life, but nothing feels more supremely self-centered than wanting you the way that I do and compromising you the way that I did, considering what I am. Honestly, your brother would’ve killed me, and yet if given another opportunity, I would do it all over again—and more. Perhaps I’ve learned nothing and I am still the same selfish ass you accused me of being when we first met. You’re always so uncannily perceptive.

I left the pages of characters for two reasons. One, so that you have enough to preoccupy that beautiful mind of yours until I return, and perhaps you will manage to untangle what your elders cannot. Two, as we’ve already established, I’m a selfish ass, and my primary aim is to ensure that I find a way into your thoughts a little each day, as you’ve surely commandeered mine.

Lastly, I wish to say this: you are a lion, Josephine Alistair. Always remember that. No matter what your elders ask of you or how they advise, lions should not be hidden away. They need to be let loose.