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“Hi,” Remy said. In her mind, she rolled her eyes at herself. It was all she could think to say after that moment on the balcony, otherwise she would spill all her words and feelings to him.

“Hi,” Hale said back with the smirk that sent shivers dancing around Remy’s body.

Hale leaned beside Remy, watching her rather than the view. She looked over his face: those thick dark eyebrows, those full soft lips, that hard sculpted jawline. Remy had only been away a handful of hours and yet . . . she had missed him. She had missed looking at that gorgeous familiar face, hearing the deep timbre of his voice, smelling his ocean air scent.

The position they took next to each other was so similar to the day before on the Crushwold river boat. It felt like a lifetime ago. His parting words from that morning seemed to stretch between them, just as the feel of the stubble on his cheek still tingled across her lips from that fleeting kiss on the balcony. His affections were real. Her affections were real. She prayed Hale’s fae ears could not hear the pounding of her heart.

“What?!” Carys’s shout snapped them out of their silence.

Remy looked over to the three fae soldiers. They had a scattering of blankets laid out against the opposite curving wall. Candles flickered beside plates of food and bottles of wine that they passed between them. It was a picnic under the stars.

The prince turned to Carys, his fae ears probably hearing their whole conversation. “It’s the King’s orders, Carys. There’s nothing we can do.”

“What’s going on?” Remy wondered.

She went over to the blankets and sat beside Carys. Hale followed, and Remy did not miss that he chose to sit beside her.

“The King is a dick, that’s what’s going on,” Bri said, shoving a slice of cheese into her mouth.

Talhan snorted. “She’s not wrong.”

“I take it your meeting with the King went well?” Remy grimaced.

“He has ordered Bri, Carys, and I to go back to Falhampton.” Talhan cursed, setting the plate of fruit down roughly. “He says we are to pull back Hale’s soldiers and help in the evacuation of the town.”

Remy blinked at them. He could not be serious. King Norwood was ceding his borders to the Northern Court? Did he really think giving them his border town would do anything other than encourage a bigger push into his lands?

“It’s bullshit,” Bri snarled. “The soldiers there could handle an evacuation fine without us. He just wants to keep us from Hale.”

“Why would he do that?” Remy pursed her lips.

The four of them exchanged looks, unspoken conversations seeming to happen between them.

A quiet anger threaded through Carys’s voice. “He wants him to fail.”

“Why?” Remy couldn’t understand why the King would send his eldest son on such an important mission and then plot for his failure.

“He wants you to get the amulet of Aelusien, doesn’t he?” she said. “Surely we would have better success if we all went together.”

“Exactly,” Talhan said, jutting his jaw to the side as he chewed.

“Then why?” Remy pushed.

“He asked for the Shil-de ring,” Hale said, craning his neck down to her from where he sat at her side. “His advisors are just as scheming as he is, and they have convinced him he should be its guardian until Prince Raffiel is found. He wanted you to stay in Wynreach with him too.”

Remy recoiled.

“Hale didn’t tell him where it was,” Bri said to Remy, as if reading her mind. “He didn’t give you up either.”

Remy looked at Hale, his eyes shadowed in darkness. He didn’t give you up either.

“Yeah, and get this.” Talhan rolled his eyes. “He said that a future king should have more than enough power to conquer the Rotted Peak alone.”

“I don’t understand.” Remy was so confused. Why would the King separate them? Just because his son had refused to give him the ring?

Hale had gone still at her side. She knew the answers to her questions were bringing him pain.

Carys answered for him, “The King does not want Hale as his heir.” Remy’s head whirled to her as she continued. “The King had claimed Hale as his son because of the blue witch’s prophecy on his birth that Hale was Fated to a High Mountain fae. That union would have brought the king incredible power to be so closely tied to them . . . and it would mean that Hale would marry into the High Mountain Court and his next child, Belenus, would become heir to the Eastern throne.”