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“X… Xerxes,” Ryn finally rasped out, but he ignored her.

“Damon,” Xerxes said calmly, and Damon dragged his attention back. “Leave before I tear you to a thousand pieces and scatter them across this garden.”

Damon released an exasperated huff. “Your Majesty—this maiden pressured me to—”

Xerxes took a step toward him, and Damon ripped himself back from Ryn, nearly stumbling over himself. The intimidating Intelligentsia Ryn had seen a moment ago vanished.

“Wait!” Damon tried, raising his hands. “You witnessed it! You know how this works now—It’ll be my word against hers,” he reminded the King. “That’s how it is before the council’s judgments.”

Xerxes took another careful step toward him. His skin was damp and his cheeks were pale, almost gray. Ryn pressed back further against the tree. “No,” Xerxes said. “It will be your word against mine .”

Damon’s face fell. He moved away.

“I’ll give you three seconds before I start chasing you,” Xerxes promised.

It was enough. Damon turned and rushed into the garden, his dark robe flapping at his back. Ryn watched him until he was lost to the vine-covered trees.

Xerxes’s gaze snapped toward Ryn, and she grabbed the bark at her back.

“If you ever see me and my flesh is deathly pale and gray, and my skin glimmers with moisture… Run.”

“Xerxes,” she whispered.

Rustling lifted in the garden a short distance away, along with muted voices. Ryn wondered if they would hear her if she screamed. If they would even come help her.

“I didn’t do that with him… with Damon,” she stammered. “I know I’m a Heartstealer—I would never—”

“Stop, Ryn. I’ll fix this.” Xerxes took four steps toward her, the shadow of the tree swallowing him. “Make it look real,” he whispered as he brought himself nearly against her. He inhaled, his gaze tracing her face, finding her lips. He exhaled.

He kissed her.

Xerxes’s warmth spilled in, erasing the chill on Ryn’s skin. He wasn’t aggressive; he moved carefully. His hands brushed over her cheeks, swiping off the tears there, then moved into her hair, delicately taking hold of her head to tilt her face to his.

“Who is that? Is that a maiden of the Heartstealer trials?!” a voice boomed over the garden, and Ryn flinched. Xerxes slowly took his mouth off hers. His dark lashes were pointed downward. He stared at her mouth. He swallowed.

“Arrest them!” the voice in the garden shouted. “This is punishable by—”

Xerxes turned and stepped from the tree’s shadow, making the voice stagger to a halt. Two members of the Intelligentsia and six Folke filled the garden. The Intelligentsia man at the front gaped at Xerxes, his mouth hanging open like he was seeing a ghost.

“Are you going to arrest me for being with one of my maidens?” Xerxes asked. “Isn’t this exactly what you all want me to be doing?”

The Intelligentsia man didn’t blink, didn’t speak. The Folke guards looked uncomfortable—a few of them glanced off at random shrubs or a passing leaf blowing in the wind. Ryn knew they could recognize her in the dark, but she was grateful to be in the tree’s shadow in this moment.

“What’s the matter? Did you hear a rumour this maiden was out here with a man?” Xerxes asked. He rolled his eyes. “You’ve seen me, now leave. And, by the Divinities, don’t bother us anymore,” Xerxes said.

The Folke bowed in obedience and turned away, rushing back through the flowers.

It took the Intelligentsia a few more seconds to move, but they too turned their backs to the King and left.

The two of them whispered between themselves until they were out of sight, abandoning the garden to a quiet, still state with only bushes and treetops ruffling in the breeze.

When they were gone, Ryn peeled herself off the tree. She interlocked her shaking hands.

“Xerxes,” she said. He turned around to face her. The moonlight was crisper now, emphasizing his drawn brows and his frown. “I wasn’t doing anything out here with Damon—”

“Just say thank you,” he advised. A small touch of humour lit his face. “For saving you, and for that excellent kiss.”

Ryn’s gaze expanded. She closed her mouth, grateful for the night hiding her blush. The tightness in her body unspooled, and she dropped her hands to her sides. She said nothing as several seconds slipped by. She’d stopped shaking, the pressure of forming tears was gone.

Xerxes waited, lifting a brow.

“Oh…” Ryn shook her head to clear it. “Thank you,” she said. “For saving me. And…” She paused, and his smirk widened. She bit down on her lips, wondering if he really wanted her to say the next part. But he didn’t stop her, so she took in a deep breath and blurted, “…for that excellent kiss.”

“You’re welcome. I’ll wait here until you’ve climbed back into your room,” Xerxes said, but his smirk fell and his lashes fluttered like his vision was misting over. He tapped against the side of his head with his fist and jammed his eyelids shut. “But hurry,” he said. “I need to go, urgently.”

Ryn watched moisture crawl back over his skin, glimmering in the moonlight.

She quickly turned and took hold of the palace wall. She imagined he’d run off the second she was out of reach, but she was only six blocks high when he called up in a loud whisper, “Ryn!”

She glanced down over her shoulder. He stood directly below her now.

“What are you doing for the senses trial tomorrow?” he asked.

Ryn released a sound of astonishment, wondering how he could be thinking about that at a time like this.

And why he assumed it was easy for her to hang off the side of a wall.

“I’ve chosen the sense of touch. I’m dancing!

” she whispered back. Why did he want to know so bad? It only made her want to hide it more.

A moment passed. Then a slow smile spread across his face. “No, you’re not,” he said. But he swept back from the wall, shaking his head as he blended into the orchard’s shadows.

She didn’t know what to feel as she resumed her climb. There was a great wave of things starting with Damon and ending with Xerxes. Heva was going to lose her mind when she found out what Damon did. And what Xerxes did…

Ryn rolled over the windowsill and tumbled onto her chambers’ floor minutes later. When she climbed to her feet and looked around, she realized none of the torches were lit. A dinner tray rested on her dining table in the dark with a large plate of untouched food.

“Heva?” Ryn called into the room.

When there was no answer, she tiptoed to the door and cracked it open to peer into the hall. No one was there, not even Matthias. So, she closed herself in.

Heva still hadn’t returned by morning. Ryn picked at her bread and sugar. Her first bite of breakfast felt like a stone sliding into her stomach. She was sure she’d vomit if she took another, so she shoved the bread aside.

She’d thought all night about telling her guardswoman of Damon’s act in the garden.

Ryn’s abdomen still warmed thinking about what happened after Xerxes had shown up too.

With all the extra Folke training taking place, she figured her two guards had been dragged into it all.

She tapped on the armrest of the chair to keep busy.

Someone knocked gently against the door, and Matthias let himself in. Ryn breathed a sigh of relief.

“Thank goodness!” she shouted, jumping to her feet and jogging to him. “I worried about you two all night. You’re with Heva, right?” She leaned around him to glance into the hall.

Matthias made a face. “No. I haven’t seen Heva since… Well, early yesterday morning when you two sent me away.”

Ryn’s smile fell. “Heva was never with you…?”

Another knock sounded on the open door, loud this time. Marcan flashed Ryn a grin as he walked in. “You’re going to be blown away by the gown I made you for the trial tonight, Estheryn,” he said.

Tonight. Ryn had already forgotten the Heartstealer trial was tonight.

Tonight?!

It nearly knocked her off her feet: the assassination attempt on Xerxes’s life would happen tonight . She’d been so flustered by the garden incident, and with her Folke guards absent, she forgot how important this day was.

Ryn had a plan with Heva. Heva was going to release whispers through the Folke from “anonymous sources” that there would be an attempt tonight at the contest, so the Folke would be on high alert.

At least if the Folke knew an attack was coming, they’d take measures to prevent it.

Then Heva was going to take up a position by Xerxes and watch the crowd like a hawk.

But where was Heva and why would she not at least send word to Ryn if she was going to leave for a while?

“I need to go,” Ryn apologized to Marcan. She moved for the door.

“Why? We need to do sizing immediately so I can make alterations to your gown before this evening,” Marcan said.

“I just… I need to talk to someone.” Ryn slipped into the hallway, rushing on bare feet over the cold floors. She didn’t realize she was still in her nightdress until she was halfway to the pools.

She came into the women’s bath chambers to find mist coiling off the two-dozen naturally formed rock pools. “Heva!” she called into the mist. She slipped into the haze, balancing on the narrow rock barriers between pools. “Heva!” she called again.

She searched every pool, but there wasn’t a single body in sight.

Ryn ended up in the Abandoned Temple. She stared at the crumbling statue at the end of the room. She pointed at it.

“You’d better not let something bad happen to Heva,” she threatened. In legends, it never ended well when a mortal threatened a god. But after what had occurred in the garden with Damon, Ryn’s gut twisted when she thought through every possibility.

She didn’t stay to hear the voice of El. She turned and marched back to her chambers, her bare feet leaving watery footprints down the halls the whole way.