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The healer smiled at me. “It’s an honor to serve you, Queen Brynlynn.”

I hated the formalities. “Please, just Bryn is fine.”

He nodded. “Bryn, I’m Alister. You may not remember me from a few weeks ago, but I tended to you when you first arrived.” He smiled to himself. “I also tended to you back when you used to run within these castle walls with King Adrian here. You had a knack for getting into mischief, and a series of injuries to go with it.” His eyes twinkled at me as he replayed the memories to himself.

Of course I remembered the healer. But my memories from my past life weren’t embedded like the memories of the life I currently lived. My past-life memories were more like reels of film I had to catalog through first, before I could pick the right time and place.

The memories were all there, but finding them was difficult.

Alister set a faded leather medicine bag down on Adrian’s old oak nightstand. “May I?” he asked, pointing to my bloodied thigh.

I nodded, trying not to whimper as he poked and prodded around the wound with his slim, wrinkled hands, peeling back the makeshift bandage and the ripped fabric of my pants.

“You’re very lucky. Whatever object pierced you narrowly missed your artery.” Alister rolled his eyes as if I should have avoided getting injured altogether. “I need to clean out the wound then stitch it up, it’s quite deep.” He reached inside his bag, pulling out a jade-colored glass vial, popping the cork at the top and handing it to me. “It’s a sleeping draught. I imagine you’ll want to be asleep for this. It will require layers of stitches.”

I shook my head at first, refusing the liquid. There wasn’t enough time to sleep. I needed to make sure my brother and father were okay after I was stitched up.

“Bryn,” Adrian said, “you should take the draught. The world’s problems will still be here in a few hours for you to worry about. A morning won’t make a difference, I promise.”

He was right, of course. I’d been through a full day of hell in Delirium, followed by a real-life game of chess overnight.

I needed to catch up on sleep.

Adrian took the vial from the healer’s hands, sniffing it once, then taking a small sip of his own, before handing it to me.

I took the vial from him, my hands shaking slightly from the pain, and downed it in a single gulp, handing the empty vial back to him.

Almost immediately, I felt my limbs grow heavy, the mattress beneath me sinking, then rippling, as if made of water.

My leg ached with the added weight of the draught as I fought the feeling of sleep, until Adrian’s whispered words settled me as he stroked my hair, kissing my ear.

“Sleep, Princess. I’ll be here when you wake.”

The mid-morning sun called to me, rousing me from my silent sleep. I felt warm and rested, working to open my eyes, rubbing them to help part my heavy lids.

Adrian lay next to me, fast asleep, his dark waves damp where they rested against his pillow that he’d bunched up underneath his forearm.

He’d bathed sometime while I’d slept, the scent of clean soap mixed with cinnamon emitting off his broad chest I rolled myself into, burying my face against the soft hair there and the worn leather of his necklace.

My body felt attuned to him, his magic moving against mine beneath my skin, caressing me at my core.

My eyes roamed down him, to where a fresh pair of dark pants sat low on his hips, the burgundy bedsheets draped over the rest of his body.

Burgundy was Adrian’s favorite color. A simple fact I was able to remember now.

It was a weird feeling to know Adrian, but not know him from this lifetime.

I loved him—I was certain of that—but now we would need to relearn each other. Twenty-six years’ worth of memories apart from each other to share.

I lifted the bedsheet to check out my leg, and found brutal bruising covering my entire thigh. The stitches were clean and even, though. The scar would at least be straight.

My own outfit had been changed from my dirty dark green uniform to a delicate silk nightdress, the same dark green as the clothing color from Two.

“Is green still your favorite color?” Adrian whispered, sliding his hand to run his knuckles down the side of my dress.

I sucked in a breath at his warm touch, happy he was now awake. “It is. I suppose favorite colors are a trait you get to keep when you get a second life.” I smiled, brushing my nose against his chest.

“I’m sorry for changing you while you slept. I waited until after Alister left, but I needed to get those clothes off you. I wouldn’t take the risk of your wound becoming infected. Plus, they smelled atrocious.”