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Thorne

I was an idiot.

I shouldn’t have walked over to her. I wasn’t even sure why I did. Clarissa appeared so calm, so unrestrained, so free . I was like a moth drawn to her fire, that blazing spirit I could never quite predict but that entranced me all the same.

And when she looked the way she did tonight…

I was helpless.

Her dress pooled around her feet, with gold threads like sunlight flowing over the fabric and making her shine as brilliantly as her smile. A flower crown was nestled in her blonde waves, and that slit at her leg exposed fair skin that begged to have my handprint on it.

I mentally slammed a wall on that sudden image.

Fates, where did that come from? It was as if the old Thorne were knocking at the door, bringing back a side of me I hadn’t seen in years. Nobody since Iris had caught my attention like this. Nobody since Iris made heat spark in my blood.

Nobody since Iris stopped my heart when holding my daughter.

“How are you doing after today?” I asked.

I’d been just outside the clearing with Marigold when we heard the gasps from the crowd, but I couldn’t get close enough to get a good look.

It wasn’t until I passed Marigold off to my mother that I saw the guards barreling the would-be assassin toward a prisoner’s carriage, followed closely by Clarissa and Galen.

She looked every bit the strong empress she was as she tried to hold herself together, but I saw the fear in her dark eyes.

The confusion. And when I watched that guard grab her by the arm…

it was like some beast roared inside of me, the need to protect her so strong, I wanted to rip his arm out of his socket.

How dare he touch her like that? An empress and his soon-to-be queen?

That wasn’t me . I wasn’t easily angered. I didn’t have emotions that surged through me like this, white-hot and branding. I was casual, laid-back, sometimes irritable, often worried, but never consumed.

Until this empress.

This strong-willed, sharp-tongued, secretly vulnerable woman whose heart was twice the size of anyone I’d ever met.

I’d known she was beautiful since the moment I saw her. I wasn’t a stranger to beautiful women, and I didn’t go throwing myself at the feet of every one I came across. But something about her had me on my knees twice now without even thinking.

I kept telling myself she and Galen would be married soon, and then she’d go back to her empire, living her life away from us. The diamond on her finger that kept catching the light of the fire and glittering back at me was proof enough of that.

This was a momentary attraction. It would pass. And everything would go back to the way it was supposed to be.

She sighed. “I’m fine, but I don’t really want to talk about it. I just want to forget all of it for a few hours.” She lifted the cup to her lips once more, and I forced myself not to watch the slender column of her throat move up and down as she drank.

“You know, I wasn’t kidding about the wine.”

“Please. You should see the stuff we have back in Veridia City.” She took another sip and met my stare. Everything was a challenge to this woman.

It made heat burst through me.

She’s marrying your best friend .

“There’s a green wine called Luxe, which is stronger than any normal wine,” she went on. “Lowers your inhibitions faster than you can blink. And a gray one, Grimlock, makes you incapable of lying.”

“Well, I’m glad we don’t have that here.”

Cocking her head at me with that devilish look I’d seen several times, she asked, “And what truths do you have to hide, Lord Reaux?”

She was definitely flirting with me.

I met her stare for a beat before turning back to the fire. “Wouldn’t you like to know?”

And perhaps I was flirting back.

We stared at the flickering flames in silence until she said, “You know, you’re not who I thought you were.”

That took me by surprise. I let out a soft snort.

“Yes, I seem to remember you calling me a—what was it? A man who’s used to charming his way into anything he wants with a nice smile and pretty words,” I said, recalling her accusation from the night in the Silenus gardens.

I was teasing, but truthfully, her words stung more painfully than I’d expected.

Probably because, once upon a time, they were true.

She winced as she swirled her cup. “It sounds so much worse when you say it like that.”

“Well, it didn’t exactly sound nice the first time, either.

” I smirked at her. I didn’t blame her. I knew she’d had a difficult few days when she’d said those things, and I certainly hadn’t made her time any easier.

I loved getting under her skin too much.

And I knew what kind of front I put on. It was all too easy to pretend to slip back into the man I used to be, especially when it kept things light.

“You’re none of those things, Thorne. And I’m sorry I judged you so harshly.

” She sighed and took another long sip, then stepped closer to me.

Close enough that I could smell her, sweet like lemons and crisp like pine needles on a forest floor, with a hint of the strong wine I was sure she’d had too much of.

“You’re a good friend to Galen,” she continued. “Even when he doesn’t always deserve it. And…you’re a good friend to me.”

“Ah, so we’re friends now, Empress?” I replied. She was too close, my heart too open, the foot of space between us too charged. It made me retreat into my mask of charm and quick wit, afraid of what would happen if I let myself be as vulnerable as her.

“Don’t interrupt,” she snapped playfully. “This is probably the nicest I’ll ever be to you.” A hint of her crooked smile glowed up at me. I chuckled until her next words made the grin fade from my face.

“You’re a good father, Thorne. I can’t imagine how difficult it’s been to raise Marigold on your own, but she seems so happy . So protected and loved. She’s beautiful and full of life, and I know we haven’t known each other very long, but I think…I think that comes from you.”

I didn’t know how to respond. I hadn’t expected her to say anything like that, and it clenched around my heart like a vise.

“Thank you,” I said after a moment. “That’s all I want for her, you know.

To be kind and happy. To know how loved she is.

” I wasn’t sure what made the words spill out of me, but now that they started, I couldn’t stop them.

“We’ve been fortunate to have so many people support us and dote on her since her mother died, but a part of me feels compelled to love her enough for both of us.

That me by myself wouldn’t be enough, and she’d always be missing something if I didn’t fill that hole.

Nothing can truly fill it, of course, but it doesn’t stop me from trying. And often failing.”

Clarissa’s brow furrowed, the flower crown resting on her head casting shadows onto her cheeks and the tip of her nose.

“The only way you could ever fail her is by not being there. I was watching you today at the tournament—that little girl looks at you like you’re her entire world.

I don’t think you have to make up for anything.

She just needs you .” She tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear.

“Trust me, as someone who lost her father sixteen years ago, she’s lucky to have you in her life the way that you are. ”

“I’m sorry about your father,” I said. “If I may ask…what happened to him?”

She took another sip of wine. “He died of a heart attack when my twin brother and I were twelve. Well…that’s what the healers said, anyway.

My brother believes it was his own fault.

He thinks it was the consequence of dark Alchemist magic he used as a boy.

I don’t know if we’ll ever know the truth, but it doesn’t change what happened. ”

I’d never get used to the way she spoke of magic so casually, as if it were something they all possessed and could turn on and off at will.

Normal and expected. Not this poisonous, evil magic that only Galen and his ancestors had, that slowly ate away at their family and our entire kingdom.

I briefly wondered what it would be like to see a magic that didn’t always bring hardships.

But then I realized…I had seen it. Watching Clarissa transform into her fox half after touching the blight was remarkable. Natural and powerful, like that was how it should be.

Everything about her was remarkable.

“Was that when the next emperor took his place? Emperor Gayl?” I recalled the name from a letter with her council. I knew Clarissa’s father was Emperor of the Veridian Empire at some point, but something had happened to make the new man, Theodore Gayl, take over.

She shook her head and downed more of her drink. “No, my father hadn’t been emperor for years. He abdicated his throne when I was practically a baby and moved our family to a cottage in the woods.”

I let out a disbelieving laugh. “What could possibly make an emperor give up that life?”

“You didn’t think your kingdom was the only one burdened with a terrible curse, did you?” she asked, quirking an eyebrow. Her cheeks were flushed from the bonfire and the cup of wine she’d almost finished.

“There were…complications when my brother and I were born. Leo and my mother almost didn’t survive.

” She shifted on her feet. “Emperor Gayl was a powerful Alchemist, and he saved their lives—but it was all just a ruse. What he actually did was use that moment of such dark, powerful magic to cast a sleeping curse over the entire empire,” she explained, her words tripping over themselves as she spoke.