“Let her, Kye,” Hadrian said, leaving us to return to the horses.
As Kye and I followed, I realized his black mount had been there the entire time, tucked into the brush only feet from where Hadrian stood.
The crown prince sighed, and when he spoke, he directed his answer at me. “I grew up in a nest of vipers. People who pretended to be my friend for their own advantage. People willing to lie, just to get close.” The corner of his mouth lifted in humor as he reached for the reins, wrapped in the tree branch over our heads. “None of them would ever risk telling me when an idea of mine is stupid.”
At the stables Hadrian handed his reins to a young, freckled hand, murmuring a need to check in with Elros. But I knew he wanted to give Kye and me a moment alone. I lingered to comband cool down my mare, grateful for something to do with my hands while my mind worked out the jumbled mess of the last hour.
Kye did the same in the stall next to mine, both of us, apparently, searching for something to say, until I grew impatient enough to leave the subject of Thaan and Hadrian behind altogether. “I didn’t know you were coming.”
From the corner of my eye, he nodded to himself. “Neither did I, until two weeks ago when a letter came to the infirmary.”
The infirmary.
My insides turned, and I paused to look at him.
“You were hurt?”
He dragged his teeth over his lower lip, but then shrugged, his gaze shifting across my face before glancing back to his stallion. “I’m fine.”
Apparently, the conversation was off limits. I ran an idle hand down my mare’s soft neck, forcing myself not to question what might have happened to him at Winterlight—even though it had been a gnawing plague on my stomach the past few weeks. His short answers twisted painfully inside my chest, and I steadied myself against the impulse to cross the room and force him to look at me.
“It’s not seduction the way you think it is,” I finally said.
In my periphery, he paused, then slowly continued combing. “What is it, then?”
“It’s…seduction of the mind. Not the body.”
“What’s the difference?”
“Hadrian asked me what hold Thaan has over your father,” I started carefully, watching chestnut fur shift as I glided my fingers across it. “Thaan can take over a mind if he wants to. He can make people do things, and they won’t remember doing them. They’d just wake up in the morning and go about their life, never knowing any better. He’s been teaching me since Icame here.” I stalled, nervous to go on, even as some part of me wanted to tell him. To warn him of the dangers of being close to me. I needed him to know what type of threat I was. “I couldn’t figure you out. You’d been kind to me in Leihani. Then you came back to Neris Island, and you were different.”
He hung his comb on a shelf and crossed his arms, turning to gaze at me. Exhaling, I did the same.
“Have you ever used it on me?” he asked softly.
I shook my head.
“And how do I know you’re not lying?”
“You don’t.”Mihauna, I was tired. But I didn’t want to go back to the castle yet. “You just have to take me at my word.”
Kye nodded. Through the window, Cynthus sat over the cliffside, waiting for us. “Have you been to the beach yet?”
I straightened. “No.”
He unbuckled his baldric, leaning his sword against the stable door, and did the same with the knife strapped to his boot. “Want to walk down with me?”
Warmth stirred in my belly, but I tempered it. “Alright.”
Kye pulled a third blade from his belt, dropping it carelessly on the stable shelf. “The water will rust the steel,” he said, mouth quirking. “You might want to change. The waves are rough down there. The salt might ruin your dress.”
“I’ll be fine.”
I followed him over the grass to a steep, rocky trail that ran straight to the beach. One false step would have me rolling head over heels down the cliffside. Kye cleared his throat, eyeing my heavy skirts. “You’re sure you don’t want to change?”
Gnawing my lip, I stole a look at the castle. “Can they see the beach from inside?”
He raised a brow. “Not if we take a left at the bottom instead of a right.”
