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She had a ready smile for Teoran. "Good day to you. Are you still determined to follow me north?"

She would be the last to admit it, but she was quite relieved to set out accompanied. A map might have helped, but a guide was more than welcome.

"An entire army wouldn't deter me. Are you ready? The king showed me the horses we're to take."

She bobbed her head. "I was just going to say goodbye and go."

Teoran winced. "Rydekar let me know he's occupied. I'm sure we can find him if you need him, but he told me we could go when you got up."

Every word felt like a slap. He wanted her to go like this, without a word?

Of course he did. He was a great, busy lord, with no concern for her. All he cared about was what she could bring him. Beyond that, she was no one to him.

It hadn't felt like it last night as he laid next to her. It hadn't felt like it when he looked at her or danced with her. But that was the simple, unadorned truth.

She felt foolish for falling for the illusion he'd wanted to cast on the court. He was playing the role of her lover because it suited his agenda, but Rydekar Bane didn't care about her at all.

"All right. Let's go, then."

* * *

One hundred years.It had been one hundred years. That time, he’d managed to walk away with comparative ease. It had been the hardest thing he’d done in his two centuries until then, but he’d manage it.

Today? Watching her walk away from him, likely marching to her death, was worse. Haunting. Soul-destroying. But he bore it all the same.

“I should go with her.” Khal shook his head. “Dammit,youshould go with her.”

Rydekar loosened his fists and walked away from the window overlooking the courtyard. One step. Another one. He reached the mantelpiece adorning his fireplace and leaned against it, willing himself to remain right there.

Still, he turned to the window, and kept looking.

The two riders were at the gates now.

Khal slammed his book shut and stared pointedly at him.

“I have a kingdom to rule. Two, in fact.”

“She’s likely to die out there. If not by Antheos’s army, then by the hand of the wilderlings, or that seelie knight. And let’s imagine that both spare her somehow. The cursed prince was a psychopath. You know it. I know it. The entire world knows it.”

“Except for children who’d rather believe in fairy tales than in reality. She could have opened any book and worked it out. She’s a liability. Impulsive, self-centered, with no sense of duty. She better serves us in the north than here.”

“In the north, where she’s likely to die?”

Rydekar lifted his chin.

“That’s what you’re saying, isn’t it? That you think she’s better off dead. She poisoned herself for you!”

“She’s a liability,” he repeated steadily.

“No.” Khal laughed. There was no humor to it, none of his usual cheeriness. “She’s a vulnerability.Yours. Do you think me blind, cousin? I used to wonder why you were so adamant to dissolve your alliance with Siobhe. She’s an idiot, but you put up with it for over half a century, then suddenly, you were set on breaking a contract—going back on your word. I always wondered. Then yesterday during your spectacle at court, I remembered. You met her at her father’s court. You wanted to be free when she came of age.”

Rydekar quite liked his cousin. More than anyone else in this court. All the same, he glanced at the dagger on his belt and considered practicing his throwing arm.

“But you didn’t go to her. Not until now—when you needed help. You didn’t go to find the seelie queen. You went in search of your mate.”

Two moves. His finger pulled on the bejeweled pommel, chucking it in the air. Catching it, he flung it with speed and precision. The iron blade sliced his cousin’s cheek before embedding itself on a painted hardwood wall.

“If you’d been anyone else and said those words to me, you’d be dead. Have a care.”