Page 26 of The Nightmare Bride

My throat worked. It took me three tries to produce a response. “So no matter what we do, you’ll sign the annulment? Marry Amryssa?”

He didn’t blink. “Is that what you want?”

My pulse stumbled, then righted itself. It absolutely was. Kyven was her only route out of Oceansgate. Her only chance at safety. “More than anything.”

“Then why not? But you should know I have no intention of repeating this with her. Once it’s done, I think it’s best if I move on. That’s what I’d always planned, truth be told.”

“What, to...leave?”

His smile flattened, turning rueful. “Yes. Your Lady can have her place in Hightower, without me. And I’ll walk out into a nightmare, never to be heard from again.”

I digested that. “But everyone would think you were dead. Wherever you went, you wouldn’t be a prince anymore.”

“I’ve spent most of my life not being a prince. It wouldn’t be anything new.”

My thoughts whirred, but this was...perfect, actually.

He could live as he liked, no arranged marriages or royal fathers to answer to.

The king would consider his problem solved, and Amryssa would have a wonderful life.

I could even accompany her to Hightower, something I hadn’t dared hope for. “But where would you go?”

He shrugged. “Fairmont, probably. The only territory I haven’t seen. The last accent I have left to collect.”

Fairmont. Smack-dab in the middle of Elara. He’d be far enough from both Oceansgate and Hightower that we wouldn’t chance seeing him again.

A thrum started up in my veins. “I like this idea.”

“Oh?” His voice dipped into husky territory. “Which part? All of it?”

“Well, not the part with the fucking.”

He chuffed a soft, hollow laugh.

“Or the cuddling. But the bed-sharing, I can do. More importantly, I can help you get your freedom. I just have one request. Something you have to do for me.”

He gave me a look. A sultry, up-and-down, I-sincerely-hope-this-involves-us-getting-naked-somehow perusal that set my stomach quivering. “Anything for my wife,” he said, so throaty he sounded like someone else.

What. In the actual hell. Where had he learned to do that? On the stage?

Annoyance flared, and I clung to it. If this prince thought he could do that scorchy-scorchy shit with his eyes and not suffer some kind of retribution, I would disabuse him of that notion, and quickly.

“Anything?” I said, matching his seductive tone.

“Anything.”

I stepped in and leaned down, as if to kiss him.

He tipped his face up, eager, his lips parting as his lashes sought his cheeks. He slid a hand into my hair, but I stopped, my mouth a hairsbreadth from his.

He deserved a little torment. Probably more than a little.

Still, I hovered there for much longer than necessary. Just a fraction of an inch, and I would know what he tasted like.

And goddess, I wanted to find out. Something swelled in my ribcage, so insistent it felt like a tempest trapped inside a thimble.

Because while, on some level, I’d found him beautiful since I’d first laid eyes on him, this —the temptation of his scent, his nearness, waking up to him the way I had—it was. ..

Well, something I couldn’t indulge in, at any rate. Because despite Kyven’s claims, our annulment had to stand. I would secure Amryssa a place in Hightower, one nobody could dispute.

Moreover, until Amryssa walked down that aisle, everything could still fall apart. Which meant I needed a backup plan. A way to make Oceansgate livable for Amryssa, if possible.

“I want you to help me find out if Zephyrine’s in my dagger,” I said, not so much speaking as breathing the words directly into his mouth. “And if so, how to get her out. How to stop these nightmares.”

Kyven’s eyes snapped open. He was so close I could count the diamond flecks in his irises. Feel every needy pull of his breath.

Goddess, if I kissed him, I wouldn’t offer him an inch. Not even a mile, like he’d said. I’d give him a fucking light-year.

So I pulled back, leaving him straining toward empty air. He groaned, but I swore I clocked a note of appreciation in it.

“You’re ruinous, do you know that?” His voice had gone tauter than a bowstring. “I swear you’ll be the death of me.”

I forced a chuckle. I wouldn’t, although I very nearly had been, that first night. If only he knew how that tongue of his had saved him.

“But...I’ll help you,” he continued. “Of course I will.”

“Thank you.” A knock came at my door, and I moved away, grateful for the distraction.

It was probably Miss Quist, come to deliver Amryssa. Except when I swung the door inward, a steward waited in the hallway, his face pinched. “Harlowe. Your Highness. The seneschal wants everyone downstairs, in the library. He’s putting together a search party.”

“A search party?” My blood chilled. “What? Why? Is someone missing?”

The man wrung his hands. “It’s Althea. Her chains weren’t used last night. Or if they were, they were stowed away first thing this morning. And she didn’t show up for her duties. We’ve searched her room, but...nothing. It’s like she’s vanished.”

Vanished . I turned to Kyven, seeking reassurance, but when our eyes met, ice frosted my bones.

Because, for just a moment, he didn’t look at all surprised.