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Rankor slouched at the foot of my bed, snoring so loudly that the blankets shuddered under his head. Gently, I stretched my foot under the blankets and nudged his head until he snorted so loudly he woke himself and lurched to alertness.

“You’re awake!” he exclaimed.

I grinned. “And you snore like a pig.”

His face twisted in an expression of indignation. “I do not!”

He stood as I stretched wide like a cat, approaching me with concern before running his fingers across my forehead. “How are you feeling?”

“Like a mythical creature bit me,” I replied grumpily, frowning as I tried to piece together my fragmented memories from the trial. “What happened? ”

His brows lifted. “What do you remember?”

“Not too much after I killed it.”

“The Dragon tried to stop anyone from helping, but we carried you back here and had the nurses examine you. You’ve been in and out of sleep for a few days with a fever. We weren’t sure you would ever wake up.”

I chuckled softly. “I’m basically impossible to kill at this point.”

Rankor shook his head and leaned down to press an affectionate kiss on my head. “Don’t jinx it. I’ll go summon a nurse.”

I relieved myself in the bathroom while I waited for him to return.

The reflection that greeted me in the mirror had certainly seen better days.

My hair was oily and matted to my head and my skin was paler than I had ever seen it before.

With my muscles still aching though, all I could manage the strength for was to fold my hair into a simple braid before the nurse came to examine me.

“Remarkable what you did out there, Lady Moore,” the nurse said as I settled back into bed. “You seem to be recovering well. The fever is to be expected, but I can already sense your strength returning.”

“How long will the fever last?” Rankor asked, his brow furrowed with concern.

“Hopefully it’ll break overnight. Try to get some more rest, my lady.”

Rest was the last thing I wanted after two days of unconsciousness.

What I really wanted, what I needed, was some roasted meat, peppered broth, and those little chocolates from the palace kitchen.

My mouth positively watered at the thought, but the exhaustion weighing down my limbs kept me pinned to the bed.

The nurse left me with strict instructions to drink the tonic she’d prepared and offered Rankor a warm smile before departing. I let my head fall back against the pillows as she left, my eyes drifting closed despite my restless mind.

The brief reprieve didn’t last long .

“Your Grace!” I heard the nurse cry out. “You startled me. I didn’t expect to see you back so soon.”

Rankor was out of his chair in an instant, nearly barreling into the nurse as he moved from my bedchamber into the parlor to block the doorway into the suite.

“Don’t you have other matters to attend to, Your Grace ?” Rankor asked, his voice sharp and uncharacteristically hostile.

“I’m not here to argue with you,” Clay said, his voice trembling slightly. “I just need to see her. Please.”

I could almost feel his concern, a palpable force radiating through the air.

“She should rest,” Rankor insisted. “Why don’t you go attend to all yourprincely responsibilitiesand wait to see her at tomorrow’s Ascension with everyone else?”

Tomorrow. The word sent a wave of anticipation—and dread—crashing through me. After a year of preparation, my trials were over, and I was set to ascend to the Council tomorrow.

“It’s okay,” I called, struggling to stand.

The room fell silent as the two men turned toward me, their chests high.

Rankor’s face was a mask of fury, while Clay, with his overgrown hair and the shadow of a beard darkening his jawline, looked utterly ragged.

Without a word, Rankor shoved past him, knocking his shoulder hard, before he slammed the door behind him.

“What’s gotten into him?” I asked, my voice hoarse.

Clay didn’t answer. His eyes roved over me, and a new kind of tension settled into the room.

“You wore that in front of him?” Clay’s voice was low, his eyes sparking gold with intensity.

It was only then I realized how I looked. My fever had left me unbearably hot, and at some point, I’d stripped off my tunic and pants, leaving me in nothing but a thin white shift that barely grazed the tops of my thighs. My braided hair exposed my collarbone, and a rosy hue flushed my skin.

Clay’s gaze lingered on the exposed skin of my legs, the anger in his expression shifting into something far more complicated. Jealousy was there, and concern, but beneath it all was fear.

“I’m okay,” I whispered.

I took a step toward him, but my legs wobbled, and he was at my side in an instant, catching me before I could fall.

“Gods, Thea,” he breathed, his grip firm and steady. “You scared me out there.”

“I was a bit scared too,” I admitted, breathlessly. “But I’m fine. It’s just a little fever.”

His hand moved to cup my face and slowly his thumb trailed over my bruised lower lip, pulling down the flesh slightly to examine where I had bitten into it during the trial.

His eyes darkened and concern flashed on his features as he did, but the touch was so intimate, so sensual, that I nearly swayed for an entirely different reason.

“You shouldn’t be here,” I murmured.

His eyes closed, and he rested his forehead against mine. “Don’t make me leave. I just—I just need to hold you for a minute. Please.”

My stupid heart wrenched, wanting things it couldn’t have. My trials were over. I would be engaged in a matter of days, married to another man in just a few weeks. I shouldn’t be alone in my bedroom pressed against the Crown Prince.

And yet, there was something about the lingering terror in his eyes and the way he said please that made all my restraint shatter around me.

“I’m okay,” I whispered again, needing him to believe it.

His arms wrapped around my waist, pulling me against his chest. He buried his face in my neck, breathing me in, holding me as though I might vanish. His grip was tight, almost desperate .

Clay had lived through an unspeakable amount of pain in his life, typically at the hands of his own father.

He’d watched the Dragon murder his mother when he was just a boy, and now he had to watch his father continuously find new ways to torment me.

He did what he could to protect me, but there was only so much that even he could do.

The trials were one of those things he hadn’t been able to protect me from.

But the trials were over

And I was okay.

“Do people know you’re here?” I asked softly, my mind returning to the consequences of this moment.

“You don’t have to worry about that,” he said, but the tension in his voice betrayed him.

“I do though,” I said, thinking back to the Dragon’s threats.

“I won’t let him hurt you again,” he vowed, pulling back to meet my eyes. The veins around his neck darkened, and his golden gaze burned with intensity. “You need to trust me on that.”

I traced the veins with my fingers, watching as they faded under my touch. His expression softened, but his words still hung heavy in the air.

“You didn’t answer my question.”

He looked away. “I took a couple of the palace tunnels to get into this wing. The nurses know I’ve been spending time in here while you’ve been sick, though. Word has spread.”

Panic flared in me, and I tried to pull back, but his grip tightened.

“Don’t,” he said firmly, holding me even closer to him. “Don’t you dare tell me I should’ve been anywhere else. I know exactly where I should be—right here, with you. There’s no version of this life where I wouldn’t have been by your side, waiting to see you open your eyes again.”

His declaration stole the breath from my lungs, filling me with warmth and dread in equal measure .

“Clay, you can’t say that to me.”

“I know that, Thea.” He ran a hand through his hair haphazardly. “Gods, I know I can’t say that. I know I can’t even think it or feel it. I know very well that I can’t crave you as much as I do, but...”

His voice trailed off as he met my gaze, as his eyes lowered to my lips.

My body was humming.All aches and pains were long ago forgotten. All I could think about now was how close he was standing to me, how much he smelt like cinnamon, how warm his fingers were against the back of my neck.

“But?” I whispered, sounding as needy as I felt.

The air was thick, tension coiling in the space between us, charging the air so intensely that nothing else seemed to matter.

Clay lifted his gaze from my lips, locking eyes with me again, staring so deeply that I wondered if he could see my soul.

“Fuck it.”

He moved suddenly, taking hold of my face, pulling, and swallowing my words with the press of his lips against mine.

Gods.

Every thought, every concern, every fear was gone.

Clayton Vail was kissing me.

My body ignited with the feel of him until every part of me was singing and acutely aware of the places his fingers met my skin.

His tongue darted over the purple bruise that lingered on my lower lip, soothing it with his gentleness, and I sighed against him, unable to stop myself from arching into his firm grasp.

I fisted my palms into his shirt, not caring if I wrinkled his finely tailored black jacket.

He groaned into my mouth, the sound sending fresh heat through my fevered body as his hands snaked back to the nape of my neck to pull me closer to him, and I went willingly.

“I almost lost you,” he whispered, pulling away to trail his lips across my jaw before pressing scorching kisses against the length of my throat. I arched, letting him support my weight when my weak knees couldn’t do so on their own.

“I’m right here,” I promised him. “I’m not going anywhere.”

Truly.

I wasn’t dying, nor was I planning on leaving his embrace.

My self-restraint fractured into tiny shards, lingering between us as months of tension and longing, and an overwhelming need for each other, could no longer be contained. I pulled his face to mine again, tangling my tongue with his, and I ran my hands through his silken hair.

A delicate throat clearing broke us apart as quickly as we had come together.

Nessira stood in the doorway of my bathing chamber, one hand over her eyes and the hint of a smile on her lips.

“I apologize, my lady,” she said lightly. “I wasn’t aware you had company, but I believe Miss Emeryn will visit shortly to discuss the Ascension.”

Right .

Of course, Emeryn would be on her way. She had stopped by shortly after the completion of both of my previous trials to discuss the next steps. I should have known she would come to visit me today now that I had woken.

My body flushed brilliantly red, and I pulled the small quilt off my bed to wrap it around myself, suddenly aware of the fact that my shift was indeed rather revealing. I hadn’t even heard the door as Nessira came in. Gods, anyone could have walked in on us and we wouldn’t have even realized.

Reckless. We had been so idiotically reckless.

“Nessira.” Clay’s voice shook slightly as he smoothed his shirt. “I know I have no right to ask, but I would appreciate your discretion. ”

Her eyes sparkled with poorly concealed amusement. “I do not know what you’re referencing, Your Grace.”

“Right.” Clay nodded and, with a fleeting glance back at me, backed out of my rooms and let the door fall heavily closed behind him.

The silence stretched for a moment before Nessira burst into laughter. Groaning, I flopped back onto the bed, pulling the quilt over my face.

That had been a mistake, one I couldn’t risk making again.

Even if his touch on my face and neck would remain burned into my memory for the rest of my days in this realm.