The only problem was, she was going to kill me first.

Cinderella yanked me to my feet, placing me between her and Evander. My throat bobbed against the trembling knife pressed against my throat. Cinderella’s hand was shaking, causing the knife to nick at my skin and draw blood.

Evander advanced on us, backing us into a corner as Cinderella drew me backward. “Draw one more drop of blood, put one more bruise on her neck, and I will end you.”

Cinderella clicked her tongue, her erratic breath stinging my cheek. “You know I can’t let her live.”

This woman was insane. She was insane, and I was going to die.

“If she dies, you’ll—”

“I’ll what?” Cinderella snapped. “Regret it? Oh, I don’t think I will. Because if she dies,” she crooned, tracing the knife across my throat as Evander tensed, “then I’m free to have you.”

I let out an exasperated cry. “You’re insane. Can’t you see I’m out of the picture? The two of you deserve each other. You can have him.”

Pain flickered in Evander’s eyes at my words, and I instantly wished I could take them back, swallow them, and bury them in the gaping pit gnawing at my stomach. His gaze flashed to mine, but only for an instant before he turned his attention back to Cinderella.

“Oh, do you not know?” Her voice was a serpent slithering through my ears, nestling into my gut, leaking trepidation into my veins with its sharp fangs.

I paid her no attention, my eyes set on Evander.

“Know what?”

He winced, his jaw working as if he was trying to formulate words, but his ability to process them was broken, rusted.

He ripped his gaze from mine, his voice going slack, desperate. “Please. Please, just let her go. I’ll do anything you want, just don’t hurt her.”

“I can’t have what I want, Evander. Not while she lives.”

“Evander, what is she talking about?” My heart raced, frantic and wild and aimless as I tried to think of anything, anything at all that could make any of this make sense, but I came up short.

“Why don’t you tell her, Prince? Why don’t you tell Ellie what you gave up for her right before she walked out on you and practically spat in the face of your sacrifice,” she hissed.

My heart stilled, my mind turned to stone. I couldn’t think, couldn’t speculate. All that was left was a quiet dread. A single question.

What did he give up?

I’d never bothered to ask him. I’d been too hurt, too heartbroken to give him the chance to admit the lengths he might have gone to in order to save my life that day of the third trial.

I hadn’t wanted to know, not really. Because if he’d given up something great, if he’d done something reckless to save my life…

I would have rather gone on hating him in peace.

But now as I stared at the male in front of me, the male who’d occupied so many stations in my life: betrothed, enemy, friend…whatever else we’d been… I had to know. “Evander, what did you do?”

He swallowed, his throat bobbing. “I…” His face heated, and I could practically feel the warmth radiating off his cheeks. He swallowed again, more forcefully this time. “Our ancestors valued fidelity above all else. Apparently, all my ancestors, all the heirs of Dwellen, are required to give up the same thing. It’s not all that bad, considering. If everything is as it should be, it shouldn’t be a sacrifice at all…”

Cinderella hissed impatiently. “What the prince is beating around the bush to avoid saying is that, as long as you live, if he as much as kisses another woman, he’ll die.”

Shock hit me in the gut, swirled around for a bit, then climbed to my chest, rushing through me in a mix of horror and…and hope.

I could hardly breathe, but I forced out the question. “You gave up your chance to be with her, to be with anyone, to spare me?”

He cocked his head to the side, his eyes going glassy. “Probably not the wisest thing to blurt out while you have a knife to your throat, El.”

I let out an exasperated huff, my mind spinning as the knife dug further into my neck, yet without drawing blood this time.

The final trial had occurred within hours of Evander letting Cinderella escape into the night, but come morning he’d chosen to keep me safe and, by so doing, sever any chance he had of being with her.

Prince Evander Thornwall, Heir to the Throne of Dwellen, had signed himself over to a life of celibacy in order to save my life.

And then he’d let me go, let me sever our bond and leave him in that sterile office, and hadn’t uttered a word of complaint about it.

The blade slid across my throat again, hovering just above the point of breaking skin. “Luckily, there’s a simple solution to our problem.”

Evander ran his hands through his hair. He was fast, but was he fast enough to disarm Cinderella before she sliced at a major artery? Probably not. My hands sweated, my palms shaking. “There has to be something you want. Otherwise, you would have already killed her.”

Though I couldn’t see her face, pressed up next to mine, I felt the curve of her grin in the dropping temperature of the air. “I want you to bind yourself to me. A fae bargain, just like the one you made with Ellie, to wed me at the next full moon.”

Evander took a breath, glanced at me, and with hardly a moment to consider the ramifications of this union, he nodded his head.

“No!” I cried out, but she only dug the blunt edge of the knife in harder.

Would that even work? Evander had been forced to ask his father for permission to enter a fae marriage bargain the first time around. But even the king had admitted this was simply a fae tradition, a safeguard against unsavory alliances.

A tradition Evander had feared enough to keep, but now, with my life hanging in the balance…

My heart sank.

He was going to do this.

He was going to bargain his life away for me. Again.

No.

Evander stepped toward us but raised his hands. “There will need to be conditions. You won’t hurt Ellie. Not now, not ever. Even after we’re wed. And you must promise me that Blaise is safe, and that you’ll return her to me.”

My ears perked at that. Blaise? Cinderella had Blaise too? Fear spiked within me. Cinderella was crazy; she might have already done away with Blaise, made up some fantasy in her head about how she didn’t like how Blaise was closer to Evander than she would ever be.

But then Cinderella spoke, and the panic coiling in my belly loosened. “I agree to your terms. Blaise and Ellie will both remain unharmed.”

I let out a strained breath. At least Blaise would be safe.

Evander would be linked to a lunatic for the rest of his life. Well, no, the rest of her life.

My heart ached at the thought, but though Evander and I would never be together, at least he’d be free of her after a few decades. There was a high probability I’d meet my end before then, but at least he wouldn’t have to produce heirs with her. And he’d have a month of freedom before the next full moon.

My brain froze on that little detail.