My lungs forgot their function, my heart missed a beat and then another, and my hands, resting on my knees, went absolutely still.
Marry him.
I could not move. I could not speak. I was frozen in the Queen’s sitting room with her words ringing in my ears and the only thought in my head was a single, blinding, catastrophic:Yes.
The settee shifted beside me. A sharp intake of breath that wasn’t mine. I forced my head to turn, the muscles in my neck feeling like stone, and met his eyes.
He was pale. Not the flushed, bright pale of embarrassment or surprise. White. The blood had drained from his face so completely that his freckles stood out like scattered ink. His eyes were fixed on me with an expression I had never seen on him before.
“Pip—” I said.
He stood. The motion was abrupt enough that the settee rocked backward. His eyes moved between the Queen and me. His mouth opened and nothing came out and he turned and walked out of the room.
His gait was fast, his posture rigid, his shoulders locked and his hands balled at his sides, and the door closed behind him with a careful, controlled click that was somehow worse than a slam.
I stared at the door.
“Well,” the Queen said. “That was not the reaction we anticipated.”
“Your Highness could have used more care,” I said.
She huffed. “Why pretend there is no resonant bond between you? It is obvious. I did not know the boy would run.”
The way Pip’s face had paled—the horror in his eyes before he fled. The thought arrived with the blunt simplicity of a blade: he did not want me the way I wanted him.
“Commander,” the Queen said, her voice gentler now. The monarch was gone; this was Delsynarea, the woman who had known me for my entire life. “Go after him.”
Chapter 25
Pip
Mysneakerssqueakedonthe marble. I passed two guards who looked at me with the polite blankness of people who had been trained not to react to anything but a violent threat.
Why hadn’t he said anything? It wasn’t like I would have expected Aeldryc to fall to his knees and beg me for my hand in marriage, but maybe he could have said something Aeldryc-like about how it would be a very good idea for us to be married. For me to sleep in his bed for the rest of my life.
Instead, he was quite focused on getting me home. So focused that he had far more information than he’d ever shared with me. Why hadn’t he mentioned that Liminal Order stuff to me? Was it because he was searching far and wide for a mirror to chuck me back through so he could wipe his hands of me?
I needed to stop thinking about this, because I was three steps from convincing myself the sky was green. But Aeldryc had gone still, the way he did when he was calculating battle strategy or deciding whether something was a threat. Like the idea of marrying me required the same level of tactical assessment as a border skirmish.
Which. Fine. That was fine. People froze when they were surprised. It didn’t mean anything. It definitely didn’t mean that the most powerful fae warrior in Qoksmere had heard the word “marry” followed by my name and thought,Oh no.
Except his face had done exactly that.
I found the stables by following the smell, which was the first thing that had gone right in the last ten minutes.
Thom was there as always. He was brushing a massive grey mare and looked up when I came in, breathing harder than a casual stroll through the palace should warrant.
“Master Pip,” he said, with genuine warmth. “Back so soon? Periwinkle will be pleased.”
“I’d like to go for a ride.” My voice came out perfectly normal and not at all like someone who was experiencing a minor emotional crisis. “Can you saddle Periwinkle for me?”
Thom glanced at my outfit. I was wearing the shorts I’d arrived in and my sneakers. Not exactly riding attire.
“Might I suggest—”
“I’m fine. I can do this.”
Thom, bless him, did not argue. He went to Periwinkle’s stall and the gelding greeted him with a soft nicker, craned his neck around to look at me.
