Page 40 of Betrothed to the Emperor

Outside, Miksha held the mule as Liku prepared the cart. It was filled with hay and some space for boxes that now sat empty. He put Tallu on one of the piles of hay, and I clambered in, awkwardly sitting next to the emperor.

Miksha handed Liku an electric light, and he lit it, hanging it from a post on the cart. Then, with a click of his tongue and a soft flick of the leads, we began moving.

The uneven movements of the cart soon had me lying next to Tallu rather than trying to stay sitting. After a jostle due to the dip in the road, Tallu rolled, lying next to me, his whole body pressed against mine.

My stomach clenched, skin hot and tight. This was fine.

Just as I was beginning to be lulled to sleep, Tallu murmured, his breath hot, “What happened?”

I jerked, tension returning to my body, my heart pounding fiercely in my chest. “I found a woodsman. He was able to clean us up. He’s taking us back to the city.”

“Does he know who I am?” Tallu asked. He was whispering, and with the groan of the cart’s wheels, I doubted Liku could hear him.

“Yes.” Tallu tensed next to me, and I grabbed hold of his wrist before he could do anything. “He’s a retired soldier. I think we should trust him.”

“I cannot trust anyone,” Tallu murmured.

“No one?” I asked, finding myself searching Tallu’s face. I wondered how terrible that would be, to be able to trust no one. The intimacy of nearly dying in the cave was gone, and Tallu’s face was cold and calculating.

“No one,” he said. Then, strangely, he looked at me, and something in the corner of his eyes softened. “Perhaps one person.”

My whole stomach tightened, and I regretted every choice in my life up until this moment.No. Don’t trust me. I am only here to kill you. As soon as I get rid of your sadist of a cousin, I will murder you in your sleep.

But then I was imagining how I would share a bed with Tallu, what I might do to have him relaxed and trusting in my arms. I was imagining the curve of his smile, the press of his lips…

I cleared my throat. “Me? Are you implying you trust me? I should warn you, according to multiple sources, I’m incredibly untrustworthy. My sister says that I take more than my share of dessert, and my mother definitely believes I was the one who burned her favorite tapestry.”

“Did you?” Tallu asked, and when his whole face softened even more, I wanted to shove my words back into my mouth.He couldn’t soften around me. I couldn’t handle that; I couldn’t handle the way that this cold man who’d casually threatened to restart a war that would end my people was gentle when he turned his hand so we were palm to palm.

“Did I burn the tapestry?” I opened my eyes wide, trying to look as innocent as possible. “Absolutely not, I wouldneverhide behind it while holding a lit candle in order to escape morning lessons. That does not sound like me atall.”

“I can see why your mother suspected you,” Tallu said, his voice quiet in the dark. I could feel the brush of air from his lips as they stretched into an unexpected smile. “You are incredibly suspicious when you lie.”

“I am not. I am a consummate liar,” I said. “No one would ever know when I lie.”

“I know when you’re lying,” Tallu said, the smile on his face disappearing and something quieter taking its place. How had I forgotten that I was lying next to a predator? How had I forgotten that this wasn’t some boy I was flirting with in the back of a cart? This was the man whom the entire Imperium bowed to.

“Do you?” I asked. “And what am I lying about, Emperor Tallu?”

Tallu regarded me, his russet eyes piercing me through as though he was the assassin and his weapon of choice was arrows. He could kill me as though it was nothing; I wouldn’t even feel the wound. When he leaned forward, breath warm on my ear, I shivered.

“You are lying that you do not need me as desperately as I need you.” His words were layered, and I tried to make sense of them, but he’d rested his hand on the flat of my stomach as he spoke, and I could barely think beyond the warm press of his palm on me.

Need. I needed him so I could kill him, and he needed me for some political reason I hadn’t figured out yet, but the way his hand was hot on my stomach, the way that he was looking at me was like ice melting, like I could see every part of him that had never learned how to trust another human being and yet, somehow, he trusted me because he thought we needed each other.

It was impossible.Hewas impossible.

“Do youneedme, Emperor Tallu?” I asked, my words quiet over the squeak of the wagon wheels, over the grunt of the mule.

“Yes,” Tallu said, and he leaned in, making his next words hard to hear. “More than you know.”

His mouth was so close, and everything in my body was alive, as though I was made of the electricity he wielded. He needed me, and I knew that he meant it in a political way, in a way that didn’t mean?—

I kissed him. Our lips crashed together, two pieces of ice on the open sea breaking apart as soon as they touched. His lips were everything;hewas everything. Maybe that was enough for me to drown out the impossible guilt I felt. I had already known what I’d have to do to get so close to him, but this felt right in a way I didn’t expect and wasn’t sure I wanted.

His mouth was soft and desperate against mine, his lips tender where they met mine, and I wished we weren’t in the back of a cart but back in the palace inbed. He pulled away, looking at me with eyes that were wide with surprise.

He brought a hand up to my face, brushing a lock of hair out of my eyes. “You are unexpected, Prince Airón of the Northern Kingdom.”