His black hair was styled back, away from his face. And his pale gray eyes nearly glowed in the dim light.
He was a fearsome and beautiful sight to behold.
“Dragon’s blood, Caspian, must you always sneak up on me?”
His lips twitched in a way I thought might have meant he was amused. “I stepped outside to ask her highness for a dance.”
My already grim mood darkened. “You must forgive me. I’m not in the dancing mood.”
“The talking mood, then? Or walking. I’m happy to escort the future queen through the gardens.”
A stroll through the gardens would be better than suffocating in the full ballroom. But it felt like a betrayal somehow. An insult to the sweet and sorrowful moment Taelon and I had just shared.
“No, thank you. I think I will—”
He held his hand out in invitation. “Come now, Princess. I’m the only eligible bachelor who has not enjoyed your company this evening. Spare me a lecture from my brother on missed opportunities. Please.”
I could not remember a time when I had ever heard Caspian use the word please. Both this week and when we were children. It was enough to pause my self-pity and give him my full attention. “As if your brother cares.”
His smile turned self-deprecating. “If you do not think my newly kinged brother wants me as far from his kingdom as possible, you do not know Carrigan at all.” I opened my mouth to argue, but he added, “And having an ally in the Seat of Power is also enticing.”
My smile was somehow genuine. “But would you be an ally? To Vorestra, I mean. If your brother still occupies the throne?”
He lifted an arrogant shoulder and looked away. “As long as there is a possibility of being the queen’s consort, my life is not at risk.”
“That doesn’t answer my question,” I told him, ignoring the words queen and consort in the same sentence.
He met my gaze again, his all pale starlight in the dark night. “I suppose time will tell. First, I must woo the future queen, make her fall in love with me, and marry her. I say we tackle dancing tonight and worry about the rest in the morning.”
I was taken aback by his charm. Had he been this enchanting since the beginning, I wondered if we could have started a friendship over the past two weeks. Instead, I was more skeptical of him than ever.
“Well, now that we know your true intentions, I believe I will stick with my previous answer. No, thank you.”
Caspian nodded and stepped back, his face falling into the shadows again. But just as I was about to walk by him, he said, “He’s betrothed, you know. Or very soon to be.”
Dread pooled in my belly. But still, I managed to keep my voice steady. “Who?”
He leaned back against the castle wall and folded his arms over his chest. “Your Soravalian Prince Charming. There were rumors of a contract being drawn up between Soravale and Tenovia just before you reappeared.”
My head spun with the possibilities. Taelon had never said anything about a marriage contract. Or about any other woman. And neither had Hugo.
Was this common knowledge? Did everyone know but me?
To Caspian, I said, “Taelon and I are friends. We’ve been friends our whole lives. What you saw—” I cleared my throat. “What youthinkyou saw were two friends catching up after two long weeks of busyness. That is all.”
“So you knew already, then. Surely, good friends—lifelongfriends—would share things such as courtship and future nuptials?”
There were two ways to play this. I could pretend I already knew and potentially be caught in Caspian’s outright lie. Or I could be honest and risk humiliation by omission. The hard truth was I already knew which way I would choose.
The humiliation had already occurred.
“He has not mentioned an engagement,” I said in a small voice. “But I’m sure the subject is awkward for him because of our previous arrangement.” I thought back to Hugo’s promise of renewing the contract when I first arrived in Soravale. Had he been willing to embarrass Tenovia over my return? How would Tenovia have reacted?
Or had it been an empty promise from the start?
“Yes, you’re right. Better to spare the princess shame than risk reminding her who she can never be with.”
His cold words were like daggers in my side. “You’ve read this wrong, desert prince. We are friends. Nothing more.” The words physically hurt to say. I had turned the dagger on myself. It was no longer in Caspian’s hand but my own. My tone matched his cruelty when I added, “Your brother is wise in that this is the time to make allies. Soravale has succeeded where Vorestra has failed.”
