A sheepish grin overtakes Evander’s face. He just shrugs, then reaches out and claps Fin on the back as if they’re old pals, Fin still rubbing his jaw in confusion.

“I would say I deserve that, except I think you probably have me to thank for helping you uncover those feelings of yours,” says Fin, straightening.

“Pretty sure I would have figured it out on my own,” Evander says, any sign of animosity washed from his features.

Ellie gives Evander a look that he can’t see—one that indicates she’s not convinced. But soon the entire group is laughing, and Evander and Fin are making plans to fence in the courtyard tomorrow.

Something twists in my chest, and Evander looks over at me. “You’re invited too, of course.”

“Kiran hates fencing,” says Fin, hastily. “I’m sure you’d rather spend your time doing something more productive, wouldn’t you?”

Fin’s smiling, but in his eyes is a dare, one that challenges me to see what he’ll do if I ruin one more thing for him, even a stupid fencing match.

After Asha and Ellie barrage us with questions about our journey, and the two decide we’ve answered their questions satisfactorily, Asha’s fingers interlock with mine, and she tugs me away from the group. We find ourselves in a coat closet, of all places, which is much too small for us. Well, too small for me.

“You can’t wait until we get back to the room?” I ask, though not at all in judgment. My magic boils in my veins, as if I haven’t been allowing myself to feel just how much I’ve missed her.

“No,” she says, then apparently feels my magic run cold, because she corrects herself. “That’s not what I meant. I’d rather not wait, but I need to talk to you about something.”

“And talking can’t wait?” I say, tracing my thumb around the curve of her hipbone.

She wriggles a bit, nervous energy practically spewing out of her. “No. Well, Imogen’s up cleaning our rooms right now.”

“Imogen? How have they not fired that woman yet?”

“That’s an excellent question, and altogether beyond the point. But I don’t want her overhearing this. Kiran…. Kiran, I think Fin and I did it.”

“Did what?”

She takes a deep breath. “I think we found your father.”

Something in my head buzzes a bit. “My father?” The word feels strange on my lips. Strange, because all my life, Rajeen was my father, or so I believed. About a year ago I discovered Fin and I were the byproduct of my mother seeking out a lover to provide the king the heir he so desperately desired.

Asha bites her lip. “I didn’t tell you the right way, did I?”

I wrinkle my brow, then let out a short laugh. “No, I can’t think of a better way than pulling me into a coat closet, getting me excited that you pulled me into a coat closet, then bringing up my illegitimate father.”

Asha hits my chest playfully, though the contact is lighter than usual given she has no room to rear back in this coat closet. “Well, when you put it that way, it sounds worse.”

“Does it?” I tease.

“Are you okay?”

I shrug. “I don’t know him. It feels…strange…I suppose, knowing he’s out there somewhere. But nothing more than that.”

“And what happened with Fin downstairs?”

This time, an unpleasant feeling punctures my chest. I shake my head. “It’s nothing different from how it always is between us.”

“I hate to see him…” Asha tenses up, searching for the right word.

“Hate me like he does?”

She nods, sadness filling her eye.

“Yes, well, I don’t think there’s anything that can be done about it. I deserve his hatred, and there’s nothing I can do to fix it. Nothing I can do that will keep him from looking at me and seeing Ophelia’s blood on my hands.”

Asha nods, biting her cheek and tucking her face into my chest. I’m always so conflicted when she does that. Part of me worries she does it to hide her scars. The other part of me revels in how she comes to me for protection, comfort.

“Still. I wish he’d forgive you.”

“It would be nice if all it took was a punch to the jaw, wouldn’t it?” I say.

Asha looks up at me. “Do you think that would help?”

“Why? Are you planning on giving Fin any ideas?”

CHAPTER 14

ELLIE

I lie in Evander’s arms, burying myself into my husband’s warm and familiar chest. Clinging to him feels critical, like if I let him go, this might turn out to be a dream.

Our reunion had been an emotional one.

After quite a few tears, most of them shed by me, and plenty of exchanged hugs (except for Kiran, who hugged only Asha), Asha and I had finally gotten our explanations for what had happened over the past months.

We were right. The snowstorm that had blown through Mystral had made the roads back to Dwellen impassable, leaving Kiran, Evander, and Blaise trapped in Ermengarde.

As it turned out, they’d been too late to intercept the queen. They also explained that Blaise’s friend had been punished by the queen, cast into an indefinite slumber that Evander was sure Peck could somehow figure out a way to solve.

He reassured her as much, and though Blaise smiled appreciatively, I could see in her sallow eyes that she wouldn’t place her hope in Peck.

The change that had overcome Blaise in the past few months was startling, though I’d encountered as much the night we found her drunk on her awful stepmother’s blood.

I’d hugged her just as tightly as Evander, though I sensed she was holding back. Whether it was her newfound strength and she was afraid of crushing me, or she was trying not to sink her fangs into my neck, I wasn’t sure, but the rigidness in her posture dampened my heart a bit.

“I’m so glad you’re back,” I’d told her. Something flickered in her brown eyes, but then she flashed me a grin, one that was all too familiar, and said, “Well, I couldn’t let Collins forget how to bake pecan pastries, could I?”

I’d laughed, hugging her again, squeezing her extra tightly, and whispering, “We’ll do whatever we can to help you get your friend back.”

She’d given me a smile that was more knowing than reassured, then stepped backward. “Well, I’ll be getting out of your way,” she said, gesturing with her head between me and Evander and Asha and Kiran. “I’m guessing there’s some lost time you’ll be wanting to make up for in the bedroom.”

The room instantly heated around us—a sign of Kiran’s embarrassment, I’d come to realize in the time he’d spent in Othian—but Evander just laughed and swatted Blaise away before picking me up in his arms and carrying me to our rooms, where making up for lost time was exactly what we’d done.

“So you think she loves him, this male the Queen of Mystral punished?” I ask, tucking my head into Evander’s warm chest, relishing the feel of him as we lie under the warmth of the blankets.

“I’ve never seen her like this, El,” says Evander, placing a kiss on my forehead. “She just seems distracted, distant, all the time. I know whatever happened to her in Mystral, whatever changed her into what she is now, had an effect on her, but I think it’s more than that.”