“How you even have the core strength to do that,” I said, rolling my eyes.

He sank to the tiled roof and sat with his legs dangling off the castle roof. “Are you complaining?”

He extended yet another hand, as if I needed help lowering myself a couple of feet. I brushed his hand away and kneeled by myself. Unfortunately, the white stiletto heels that had gone so perfectly with the dress didn’t seem taken with the uneven roof. I stumbled right onto Evander, who reached up and grabbed my waist to steady me.

Before I had the chance to consider whether I’d rather plummet to my death or fall onto the balcony for every ruler in Alondria to witness, Evander pulled me into his lap, wrapping his arms around my waist as he tucked me into his chest.

“I’m glad you didn’t take my hand,” he whispered into my ear.

The feel of his breath on my ear had me squirming, which I ran with and disguised by wriggling out of his arms and plopping down next to him.

I topped it off with a roll of my eyes, but my agitation with embarrassing myself could only last so long as I looked out over the city.

Candles and torchlight flickered like lightning bugs across Othian, acting as reflections for the stars above them. It was as if we were gazing upon a massive lake. I truly wouldn’t have known the difference. Above us the full moon watched over the city, looking especially large tonight without the clouds to obscure it.

“How many females have you brought up here?” I asked, trying my utmost to disguise the blatant jealousy wrapped within that question with a teasing lilt in my voice.

“Just the one.” Just three words, and my heart skipped. When I turned to look at him to check his face for honesty, his eyes were skyward, and his constantly sneering mask had melted off. His sea-green eyes widened in the starlight, and the tension at his jaw softened.

He turned to find me examining him. “When are you going to learn that I can’t lie to you?”

I shot my gaze away and went back to pretending to admire the city, but I could feel his stare boring into my face. My throat went dry. “Would you, if you could?”

“What, lie? About what? Why would I lie to the one person I never have to tiptoe around, waltz these stupid verbal dances with?”

“What do you mean?” I asked. “Everything you say is cloaked in flirtation or insult.”

He smiled weakly, and it caught me off guard. When he smiled like that, with such sincerity, his charm took on a boyish quality, quite the contrast to his usual mask of seduction. “I know it seems that way to you, but you should see how I talk with everyone else. Besides, I never would have told anyone else what I told you about Jerad.”

“You told her,” I said, the contents of my stomach wilting as I imagined Evander and my almost-murderer dancing the night away, him entrusting her with his worst nightmares.

He smiled. “She asked.”

“You mean to tell me you didn’t bring her up here the night of the ball?”

He shook his head. “She left too early. If she’d stayed longer, I would have. Besides, all eyes were on us the entire night.”

A thorn pricked at my heart, which irritated me. He’d said it before, that he loved her and not me, despite the horrible things he now knew about her. Despite the fact she wasn’t as she’d seemed. But here I was, still waiting for the moment the veil over his love-struck eyes would be lifted. When he would finally realize she wasn’t the type of person worth wasting his love on.

That I was?

I shuffled uncomfortably.

“Are you cold?” he asked. Before I could answer, he was unbuttoning his coat and draping it over me. His fingers lingered on the curve of my exposed shoulder just a tad longer than necessary.

I hadn’t been cold; the weather tonight had been strangely mild for early spring, but the gesture made me glad I hadn’t admitted to as much.

He pulled his hand away, waving it out into the starlight. “So, what do you think?”

“Think of what?” I asked.

He shrugged and avoided looking at me. “Of the kingdom you’re about to be a princess over. Of this new life my stupidity forced you into. Of knowing that in less than a week’s time, you’ll be my wife.”

My wife. Lightning bugs flickered in my belly at the sound of it. He turned his gaze to me on that word, his eyes wide. Vulnerable.

“That’s only if we pass the trial tomorrow.” I shuddered at the thought, which Evander must have misinterpreted as me being cold, because he wrapped his arm around me and pulled me in close to his side. I shivered at the heat emanating from him, at the closeness I’d never shared with a male.

“We’ll pass. I’ll make sure of it. Not that you need my help. You’ve proved that much.” He craned his head downward so I could see his teasing smile.

So his face could be close to mine? My heart stuttered at the thought.

“I’m not sure which is more terrifying: dying, or being forced to live out my days bound to you.” The words came out as I’d intended them, that perfect balance of teasing and meanness that my parents would have been considered a sign of affection.

But the life in Evander’s smile dwindled, even if it remained plastered to his face. “Would it be so awful?” The teasing was there in his voice, too. Just not in the corners of his eyes.

“Oh, come on. You said yourself you don’t love me. That’s a bit of a nightmare, you know—for a woman whose dream was to marry for love. You’d get out of it, too, if you could.”

Evander reached out and touched my cheek with his thumb, sliding his fingertips into my hair and cradling the base of my skull. “I intend to treat you as a queen. I hope you know that.”

The muscles in my back tensed at his touch as lightning flashed through his fingertips and into my bones.

“Like how your father treats your mother?” I asked, if only to dissipate the tension I felt in this moment. The tension I knew was only one-sided.

He frowned, but he stroked my cheek all the same. “No. You’ll be my partner, Ellie. My friend. And, if the time comes, you’ll rule by my side, not through social parties. My mother was always too smart for the limits of her position. You’re too smart for that. Truth be told, I was always terrified of inheriting the throne. But then you showed up and”—he slipped his thumb and grazed my earlobe, sending chills down my neck that I prayed he couldn’t feel on my skin—“and I’m starting to think that maybe I could be enough. Enough for this kingdom. With you by my side, at least.”

I swallowed, a desperate attempt to regain my breath, my composure.

I was on fire.

All of me was on fire, down to my toes. Surely he could sense that.

“I wasn’t trained to do any of this,” I managed to choke out. “I’m still not being trained to do any of this.”

“You will after the Trials are done. And I’m with you. I wasn’t trained for any of this either. But here we are.”

He went silent for a moment and cocked his head, like he was taking me in. I tried not to get lost in those sea-green eyes of his, tried to remember all the reasons I couldn’t fall in love with this male. Oh, and there were many. I knew that much to be true.

The trouble was, with his fingers stroking my neck and his mouth so close to mine, I couldn’t remember what any of those reasons were.

He leaned in and brushed his cheek against mine. His warm breath caressed my ear as he whispered, “Would it really be so bad?”

I shook my head. No, no it wouldn’t be.

And then his lips were on mine, warm and soft as he kissed me. The pads of his fingertips grazed the length of my neck and traced my shoulder before he ran them down my back and pulled me closer to him. I closed my eyes and allowed my limbs to go weak as the warmth of the kiss radiated through my toes, through my fingertips.

When he pulled away, I found myself leaning in closer, following him. Wanting more.

When I opened my eyes, he was smiling down at me. He ran his hand down my arm and locked his fingers in mine.