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“No sense wasting time on frivolity,” Sage said, clapping her hands together. Her narrowed gaze never left the back of her husband’s head as she continued. “Iris, bring the contract forward.”

Sage’s head lady-in-waiting, spy master, and assassin, rushed from the shadows, producing a long slender tube from under her arm. The intricate seashell artwork running down its side marked it as a relic of one of the sea courts.

My gaze darted from the prince, glaring up at my sister, to the tube.

The chill in my spine sharpened to a spear of ice.

I had been banking on one thing to save me from this mad plan.

One last ditch effort to escape my fate.

I would fall at Kaspar’s mercy and beg him to call the whole thing off.

I would ask this favor of a friend and pray to Mab he agreed.

But if Kaspar had been the one to draw up the contract, that meant he’d already signed it.

Once I pressed my signature to the paper, it was binding.

Whether the wedding was in one year or one hundred. It was done.

I swallowed, glancing at Alder. He’d backed up a step at the reminder of my reason for returning to court.

It seemed even he wasn’t willing to risk Kaspar’s wrath by damaging what belonged to him.

He moved to his seat, lounging there to stare out over the crowd listlessly, as though he hadn’t just announced my lack of sexual partners to everyone in attendance.

I fisted my hands at my sides and marched forward. This had always been a possibility. There were worse things than marrying Kaspar. Even if he’d betrayed me, there were some advantages to the marriage. He lived in water. I lived on land. I’d rarely have to see him.

I took another step, sweat slicking my palms. At least Kaspar was an old friend. It was more than I could say for some of the males who’d warmed my sheets over my lifetime.

Sage held out a pen, and I grabbed it, my throat going dry.

She twisted the silver cap on the tube and slid a long sheet of paper out, unrolling it. Without looking at any of her attendants, she snapped her fingers, and a fawn rushed forward with a small table, setting it beside her.

Sage set the parchment down on the table and looked up at me expectantly.

I glanced around the room, licking my lips. I recognized several of their leering faces. They all wanted this; the protection my marriage brought them. With Autumn in marriage talks with the prince of oceans and seas, we needed this more than I’d been willing to admit.

It wasn’t only the low fae trapped in the human realm who needed my help.

These fae lived in fear every day without any protection.

Our alliance with Winter was tentative at best, and we had none of their harsh climate defenses to keep the other courts at bay.

With Faerie shrinking, everyone stared longingly across their borders and wondered what they could do with the extra land if they marched on their neighbor and simply took it.

My gaze landed on Raine, the orc commander of our army, and anger stole through me. His stoic expression, unreadable as always, gave nothing away. His presence was a reminder that my once dear friend, Creig, no longer held the position.

How I hated him for all he’d taken from my friend. Hated the injustice of a world where no one truly got what they deserved and the best of us were forced to give up everything if we weren’t willing to play the right games.

I looked up, searching my sister’s burning eyes. Did she crave power so much that she would sell me for it? Was there any part of her that still cared for me?

“Sage,” I bit my lip. “Please don’t make me do it. Do you care nothing for our kind? Will you not consider sending your army without payment? They are suffering. Dying. Is it not your duty as their sovereign to aid them?”

My sister’s cheeks flamed deep crimson, and she shot to her feet. “I am Princess Hawthorn of the spring court and you are my titleless subject. You dare address me so informally in my own court, among my subjects, many of whom are your superior in every way?”

I snapped my mouth shut, swallowing down the bitter taste of the words threatening to spew from my lips. Who had I been fooling when I hoped to appeal to the cold-hearted royal armored in the glittering jewels she wore to distract the court from her own self-loathing?

How had I ever thought I could appeal to a monster?

I nodded once and lifted the pen, scanning the document for the space where my name would go. My stomach roiled as I looked down, Sage’s angry stare burning hot on my face.

The contents of my last meal threatened to resurface as I found, in perfect scrawling script, Kaspar’s full name—glamoured so only I could see it.

As husband and wife, we would have each other’s full names.

A trust exercise meant to show just how much we loved one another.

If someone made a poor match, put their faith in the wrong fae, it meant one might use that name for unspeakable things, could force their spouse to do any depraved act imaginable.

I held the pen between trembling fingers. I had known Kaspar almost my entire life, but did I trust him enough to give him such power over me? What choice did I have? It was me or everyone else.

The moment I pressed my name to paper, Kaspar would have power over me no one else ever had. Not my mother or father. Not even Sage.