“I refuse,” I said, turning my glare upon the king.

“Well, then,” he said. “To refuse the Trials is to refuse to marry my son.”

I made to bite back, but his words hit my chest like an arrow.

My throat closed.

I willed my lungs to move, but they wouldn’t obey. Panic set in as the king stared me down, his gray gaze a challenge, daring me to blink first.

My heart pounded in a flurry of panic. I couldn’t breathe.

What in Alondria…

What was happening?

The king flashed a set of feral teeth. Was he…was he doing this?

My mind whirred through a series of headlines, but my memory wasn’t functioning properly, and none of the headlines stuck. The royal fae were descended from the lines of the most powerful fae, those endowed with magic. But the royal family of Dwellen possessed power over plants, over flora…

So why couldn’t I breathe?

I couldn’t breathe, I couldn’t breathe, I couldn’t…

Dishes clattered and spikes of crystal shattered across the floor as the prince jumped from his seat, launching himself over the table. In a moment, his face was inches from mine, blocking my view of his horrible father. My lungs were burning now, my head spinning. The vision of the prince’s sea-green eyes danced before my face. He grabbed my face between his palms, cradling my jaw in his warm hands.

I was going to die.

I was going to die, and Evander’s shining eyes would be the last I ever saw.

“It’s okay, Ellie. Take it back. Just take it back, and you’ll be able to breathe again.”

Take it back? Take what back? I tried to scream, to explain that I didn’t understand, but the words caught in my throat, the air sealed in my lungs, the pressure building, threatening to burst.

“El. Take it back.”

Evander’s words were a command, but my lungs spasmed in a set of stifled whimpers. I gestured toward the king, praying to the Fates Evander would understand my meaning, that he could somehow convince his father to spare me.

Realization washed over Evander’s hypnotizing features. “No, El. He’s not doing this to you. It’s the fae bargain. It’s killing you.” He shook my shoulders. “Do you understand that? It’s going to kill you if you don’t take it back.”

The fae bargain.

I’d refused to enter the Trials, and by so doing, refused to marry Evander.

And the penalty for breaking a fae bargain was death.

“Fates, Ellie. Just take it back.”

I gagged on the bulge forming in my throat. Hot tears stung my eyes and poured down my cheeks as I shook my head, my sobs silent, unheard. I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t speak, didn’t have the breath to take it back. I’d broken the fae bargain, and the Fates required my life as recompense.

I chanced one last look into Evander’s eyes. They were that same sea green, except now they were shining, a raging tempest, the kind that refused to relent.

At least if I was going to die, I’d gotten to witness someone looking at me like that.

Evander must have recognized the resignation in the way my brow sagged and my eyes fluttered, because he furrowed his eyebrows and pulled my face close to his. Then, as black dots began to cloud my view of him, I felt his hair graze my left cheek. His hot breath caressed my ear as he whispered, “Say you’ll marry me.”

What?

Everything was dark now, and Evander’s voice, low and commanding, was the only thing still tethering me to reality.

I might have laughed, could I breathe.

What an absurd thing for Evander to ask, when we barely knew each other, hardly even tolerated each other.

Quite silly indeed.

This time, the hot breath against my ear made me dizzy. “Say it.”

Fine.

Okay, I’ll marry you.

“Okay, I’ll marry you.”

I gasped, air rushing into my desperate lungs. My eyes shot open, only to find that Evander had moved me to the floor, that he’d pulled me into his arms as I straddled the edge of consciousness, the edge of death. With one arm, he tugged me close, his hand clutching my waist. The other still cupped the edge of my jaw.

The light dancing in his green eyes winked. “See? I knew you wanted me.”

And just like that, the spell broke. Came crashing down like a massive chandelier that someone had forgotten to reinforce.

I leapt out of Evander’s lap like it was a den of snakes and not the source of the lightning scorching my senses.

He unleashed a cocky, lopsided grin at that.

I might have tried to wipe it clean off his face, if the king didn’t get to it first when he said, “Interesting that you couldn’t let her die, son. You could have freed yourself of the bargain.”

CHAPTER 15

EVANDER

A more intelligent man—one with his brain capable of setting aside the excitement of the present for half a moment and remembering that the future, intangible as it might seem, did in fact exist—would have let Ellie die.

That would have been the simplest way out of my predicament.

She was just a mortal, after all. A human. Their lifespans were akin to those of bumblebees, buzzing around and keeping themselves busy just to die before they ever saw their work finished.

Well that was morbid.

I didn’t actually think that, of course.