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T he air between Cora and Teryn crackled with tension, thick enough for Cora to feel even through her shields. They walked side by side down a narrow path through the woods just outside the castle walls. The three feet of space between them meant their shoulders were in no danger of touching, yet she felt Teryn’s presence with every fiber of her being as if he were pressed to her side.

She’d brought Teryn outside so she could check on Valorre and ensure he hadn’t crossed paths with her brother’s hunting party. But with Teryn so close it was hard to focus on anything else. Not even the presence of the two guards who tailed them lessened her awareness of him.

Shaking thoughts of her distracting companion from her mind, she extended her senses and sought Valorre’s familiar energy. She’d tried it several times since exiting the castle to no avail, but this time she felt their connection snap into place. He was just barely within their communication range.

Valorre! Where the hell are you?

She felt a tinge of annoyance coming from him, but it melted away. Softened. His voice reached her without an edge. I’m not too far .

My brother is in the royal forest with a hunting party. I don’t trust his councilmen when it comes to your kind. You haven’t crossed their path, have you?

He scoffed, and she could almost see him puffing his large white chest with pride. They are a pathetic hunting party. They could never find me or my kind. I could trot beside them and they’d pay me no notice. They rely on hounds to alert them of prey, not their brains.

They have hounds? How is that supposed to comfort me?

Hounds like me.

She waited for him to elaborate, but that was the only explanation he gave. Fine. Just be careful .

Who’s being the female chicken now? he said with a smug chuckle.

The phrase is mother hen—never mind. I guess we’re even .

Her lips curled into a small smile.

Cora startled as something brushed her hand. A glance to the side revealed Teryn had stepped in close, and his knuckles lightly skated over hers.

He threw a look over his shoulder at the guards, then lowered his voice. “Is Valorre nearby?”

She suppressed a shudder at the way his deep, whispered tone rumbled through her. “He is.”

“I thought so.” He took a small step away, but not far enough to regain all the distance he’d closed. “You had that look on your face just now. The one you often got during our travels. I always felt like you and Valorre were sharing some secret language.”

She pursed her lips. She never did confess just how well they could communicate. “What about Berol?”

He tipped his chin toward the sky.

Cora glanced up and saw a dark silhouette circling high above them. Realization dawned as she recalled the bird that had landed in the tower window. That had been Berol after all!

“So…” Teryn sidled slightly closer. “Should we talk about?—”

“Not yet,” she said, heart leaping into her throat. “Not until we get to where we’re going.”

“Ah, so you do have a destination in mind. We aren’t simply wandering the woods until you find an ample cliff to shove me from?”

“Oh, we are heading for a cliff. I’m undecided whether I’ll be shoving you off it.” She met his gaze with an easy smile and found him grinning right back. The sight made her pulse quicken. When had she last seen him smile like that? For a moment, it felt as if they’d slipped back in time to just under two months ago, when their banter and arguments had begun shifting into friendship. The echo of the past unsettled her. It felt…wrong. But why? Because they were less than friends now?

Or because they were more?

She couldn’t help but think of their kiss. Or before that, of the moment they’d shared beneath the tree when she’d rendered them invisible. Or at Centerpointe Rock when her hand had stilled on his torso after she’d bandaged his wound. Her mind lingered over that moment now, remembering how his eyes had flickered as he’d looked down at her, stirring the energies between them into something new. Even more so when he’d placed his hand over hers and caressed the back of her hand with his thumb.

That moment had felt so heavy. So meaningful.

But then everything changed. Cora had gotten herself captured by Verdian.

And Teryn…

Teryn had proposed an engagement between her and his brother. Regardless of the reason that had brought him here now, she couldn’t let herself forget that she hadn’t been his first choice. He was here because he had to be.

The forest path split into a fork, and Cora paused to recall which way led to her destination. After a moment of hesitation, an internal tug pulled her to the left. “This way,” she said, starting off down the left-hand path and taking the opportunity to place another foot of space between them.

Keeping her voice nonchalant, she changed the subject to neutral territory. “How did you know my brother and his council had gone hunting?”

Teryn’s smile no longer brightened his face. “Mareleau told me.”

“Mareleau?” A spike of annoyance shot through her. So his former fiancée was simply…Mareleau. Not Her Majesty. Not Queen Mareleau. Cora wasn’t sure how to feel about that, but the jealousy that clouded her chest was most certainly uncalled for. But that didn’t stop it from growing.

Teryn nodded. “She’d discovered my plan to come here and speak with you. I begged for her silence and requested her help in getting me inside the palace while her uncles were away.”

Cora arched a brow and cast him a disbelieving look. “She helped you? As in…she did something for another person?”

“More like she sent me a curt letter informing me of her uncles’ hunting excursion, and I took advantage of their fortuitous absence.”

“Why did you ask for her help and not mine?” Cora wished she could swallow her accusing tone, but it was too late. I shouldn’t care. It shouldn’t matter. She cleared her throat. “If your business at Ridine involves me, you could have sent me a letter informing me of your visit. Why the secrecy?”

Teryn cast her a sideways grin. “I wasn’t sure you’d reply. Worse, I thought perhaps you’d tell me not to come at all.”

He had a point.

But still…

“So instead, you schemed to infiltrate my home and sneak up on me unannounced?”

“Technically, I didn’t infiltrate the castle. Master Arther greeted me and—” His voice cut off and his expression turned serious. “I was willing to do whatever it took. I told you, Cora. I wasn’t going to let anything come between us again.”

Us .

The word sent her pulse thundering.

She shifted her gaze ahead and saw the trees thinning, opening to a familiar sight. One she hadn’t seen since she was a child. She picked up her pace, pouring all her focus into her destination to distract herself from Teryn.

From the way he’d said us .

Teryn kept pace at her side while the sound of the guards’ footsteps lagged farther behind. Finally, they reached a small clearing at the edge of a low, grassy cliff. Beneath it spread a wide meadow dotted with wildflowers in every shade imaginable. A smile stretched Cora’s lips. It was even more beautiful than she’d remembered.

She halted a few feet before the cliff’s edge and breathed in the fresh summer air. A shadow crossed the sun as Berol descended and landed in a nearby tree.

Teryn came up beside Cora. His knuckles caressed hers again, making her breath catch. He made no move to pull his hand away, only let their fingers brush once more before he said, “It’s beautiful.”

She angled her body to the side, sliding her hand out of reach. “I used to come here with my brother when I was a child. It was our secret place.”

He met her eyes, sunlight catching his emerald irises. His mouth lifted at both corners. “Thank you for bringing me here.”

Her shoulders tensed as a sudden wave of self-consciousness swept over her. She hadn’t considered the implications of bringing him to a special place to have their private chat. To be honest, she hadn’t thought of where to take them until they were several minutes into their forest stroll. It was the only place she could think of that was close enough for the guards not to make a fuss but far enough away to give her the time she needed to mentally prepare for the matter at hand.

Teryn faced her fully. His throat bobbed once. Twice.

She held her breath, knowing what he was preparing to say…

“Why didn’t you meet me in the garden at Verlot Palace that night?”

She blinked a few times. Those weren’t quite the words she’d expected, but they filled her with no small amount of anxiety. She opened her mouth to answer, but her eyes darted to the side, taking in the bored postures of the two guards who stood several feet away.

Teryn released an aggravated grumble and addressed them. “Can you please give us some damn privacy?”

The guards exchanged a glance but begrudgingly obeyed, taking a dozen or so paces out of the clearing to flank the forest path instead.

Teryn returned to face Cora, brow raised in question.

It seemed he wasn’t going to let her off that easy.

She resisted the urge to fidget and hid her hands in the folds of her skirt. Only then did she realize she still wore her apron and her dress was embarrassingly plain. She’d had to borrow it from a servant just to have something comfortable enough to work in. She was likely covered in salt, herbs, and soot as well. Not to mention what her hair must look like. Meanwhile, he was dressed like a true prince. A man who’d almost been king. His dark trousers were clearly made for riding, but the way they hugged his thighs told her they were custom tailored to the finest precision. His waistcoat was leather, but not in the style worn by a hunter. His was of a supple blue suede, embossed with Menah’s eagle sigil. Not even the rolled-up sleeves of his shirt or the cravat hanging loose around his neck belied his title.

He was a distinguished royal. She was a witch playing pretend until she’d served her purpose as a princess.

Besides, it didn’t matter what either of them looked like. He was only here for politics. It was better that way. She’d already determined that a political alliance was all she could commit to. A love match represented danger. The potential for heartache. She wasn’t yet ready to let go of the life she’d had with the Forest People. Of freedom. The Arts. If she married for love, she’d have to give that all up. Be Princess Aveline forevermore.

But isn’t Teryn the one person I can be both a witch and a princess with?

She banished the thought and reminded herself he was still waiting for an answer. She supposed he deserved one.

Forcing herself to meet his eyes with a neutral expression, she said, “I didn’t think it was proper to meet with what I assumed was a married man alone in a garden at night.”

“You thought I’d married Mareleau.”

Cora shrugged. “She was your fiancée.”

“No, Cora, everything changed?—”

“I know what changed. I know about Larylis and Mareleau. Or…her pregnancy at least.”

Teryn frowned. “You do?”

She let out a halfhearted chuckle. “One of the queen’s maids—well, I suppose she’s my maid now—isn’t the keenest when it comes to discretion. Or even logic.”

Teryn looked relieved that she’d freed him from the burden of having to explain. Perhaps she should free him from the rest of his burdens too. They might as well get this over with.

Turning back toward the edge of the cliff and the bright meadow beyond, she said, “I know why you’re here, and I know what you came to say. What you came to ask me. I agreed to an alliance with Menah, one that will be solidified in a peace pact at the end of the month. Its terms include a betrothal to Menah’s prince and will result in an official marriage one year from now. But there’s been a change of groom. Now I must be engaged to you to secure trust with my allies. Marrying you is the only way my brother’s council will recognize me as his heir. Until Dimetreus remarries and has children of his own, I’m the only heir he has. Which makes our engagement necessary on all fronts.”

Teryn was silent for a moment. Then he came up beside her. She could feel his gaze burning into her profile, but she refused to meet his eyes.

“You don’t have to marry me, Cora,” he said, voice low, somber. “You have a choice. Should you wish to refuse me, I’ll convince Verdian of some other way to secure trust. I promise.”

She let out a humorless laugh. “Have you learned nothing about the folly of making empty promises? King Verdian is your queen’s father. He’s threatened to take my brother’s birthright away if I so much as step out of line. You can’t go up against him.”

“Try me.”

Cora couldn’t help but look at him then. His expression held no jest. She didn’t dare open her senses to him, to feel the intensity hidden behind his words.

“It doesn’t matter,” she said, forcing her composure to remain cool. Calm. Disconnected from emotion. “My answer is yes.”

“It is?” When she gave him nothing but a curt nod in reply, he lowered his head and pinched the bridge of his nose between his fingers. “This isn’t going how I’d imagined.”

“Were you expecting me to say no?” She clenched her jaw, a flash of fury sparking in her veins. “Do you…want me to say no?”

“It’s not that. I just thought…I thought this would be a bigger deal to you.”

“Well, it’s not. You’re giving too much weight to a small matter. You didn’t need to come here, Teryn. You could have written this all in a letter?—”

“I didn’t want to write it in a letter,” he said, voice rising. “I came so there’d be no mistaking my intentions…and yet of course you’re mistaking them anyway because I’m a blundering fool…”

His words dissolved into a string of muttered curses. With a sigh, he ran a hand over his face and looked out at the meadow. Cora’s brow furrowed as she took in his tense shoulders, the fist planted on one hip, the sharp rise and fall of his chest. She wasn’t sure she’d ever seen him so flustered.

“You may be content to agree to a cold, loveless betrothal,” he said, opening and closing one hand as if he didn’t know what to do with it. “If that’s what you prefer, I’ll respect that, but I don’t want you agreeing to a thing until you understand my side of things.”

“What’s your side?” she asked, almost terrified of the answer.

Slowly, his eyes returned to hers and he held her gaze without falter. His voice came out slow, broken only by the slightest tremor. “When last we spoke, you said you’d thought my mother had meant for you to marry me when she conveyed my proposal.”

Cora shrank back, wishing she could disappear entirely. Her cheeks flooded with heat. “I…that’s not?—”

“It was supposed to be me. It had always been me.”

Cora’s breaths grew sharp, her pulse rioting. “I don’t understand.”

He took a step closer. “I told my mother of my idea to forge a marriage alliance between Khero and Menah, but that was all I’d said. She had no right to take my proposal and offer it to you before she fully understood—no, that’s giving her too much credit. She did understand my heart and interfered on purpose. She never should have done that. It was supposed to be you and me from the start.”

Teryn’s words did strange things to her chest, her stomach, threatening to upend the balance of the entire world. She felt a flicker of hope—one that had proven traitorous before.

Shoving aside all warm feelings, she latched onto steely logic instead. “That’s impossible,” she said, voice calm. “You couldn’t have meant to marry me from the start. Not until you found out about whatever scandal befell Mareleau and your brother. You were engaged to her. Had you rejected her without due cause?—”

He stepped even closer. “I wasn’t thinking about her. Not for a moment. I was only thinking about you. About us.”

Us . There was that word again.

A corner of his mouth quirked up. “Thankfully, my unwanted fiancée had secrets that aided my own.”

Her gaze lingered on his lips, on that crooked smile. On the mouth that just confessed he’d wanted her from the start. That he’d intended to choose her over the woman he’d been promised to.

Again, that flicker of hope tried to spark into a blaze, but she breathed it away. She crossed her arms over her chest and lifted her chin in defiance. “You’ve tricked me before. Used my own emotions against me.”

His smirk stretched wider, revealing the depths of his amusement. “Are you talking about our kiss?”

She pursed her lips. “I don’t see anything funny about it.”

“The only thing funny about it is that you think I did it to be cruel.” He stepped in closer, forcing her to take two steps back. He shadowed her retreat, but she refused to let him close?—

Her breath caught as she felt her back come up against the trunk of a tree.

He stared down at her with unbridled intensity. “Do you honestly believe my only motive for kissing you was to trick you? Had I wanted to be cruel, I could have said or done a thousand other things to hurt you. And if I’d simply wanted you to leave me behind in that dungeon cell, I could have hefted you over my shoulder and set you on the other side of the door before you knew what was happening.”

The thought of Teryn picking her up with such ease sent heat building low in her belly. But the image fled her mind as he leaned down, planted his forearm against the trunk over her head, and brought his face mere inches from hers. His voice left his lips in a whisper. “I kissed you because I wanted to. Because I wanted to feel your lips against mine before I died. Because it was my desire.”

“Desire,” she echoed. The word sent her knees quaking.

“Yes, desire.”

Mother Goddess, she was losing hold of everything. Of her anger, her logic. That spark of hope was growing, searing through her carefully constructed walls.

She forced herself to straighten, to hold his gaze and pretend every inch of her wasn’t burning from the inside. She waved her hand in a flippant gesture. “So now you want to go straight from desire to an engagement? Is there nothing missing between those two steps?”

“Oh, there’s plenty missing. Could I disentangle our necessary betrothal from my feelings, I would, for that would allow me to court you the way you deserve to be courted. And I’ll do it no matter what. Our engagement need only satisfy King Verdian, and we have a year before we’re expected to wed. A year for you to change your mind. A year for me to win you over. Regardless of your answer, of whatever is expected of us, I’ll woo you, Cora. I’ll court you as befits strangers. Lovers. I’ll deny myself the pleasure of kissing you until I’ve fully won your heart.”

Cora’s cold facade crumpled. His words cleaved through all remaining resistance, obliterated every argument she had in her arsenal. She could no longer deny the truth she’d tried so hard to suppress—that when Queen Bethaeny had offered the proposal, she’d wanted it to be with Teryn. And when he’d kissed her in the dungeon, she’d wanted that kiss. Wanted him. She slackened against the tree trunk and surrendered to Teryn’s relentless barrage. “All right,” she whispered, and her chest pulsed its satisfaction.

“All right,” she said again, louder this time. The spark of hope ignited, melting the remainder of her walls, heating her blood, and filling her head with the most tantalizing euphoria. “But under one condition. I want you to kiss me now.”