Crossing his arms, Aidan’s fingers pressed into the wool of his coat. “I can’t promise mortality, or escaping ruling entirely, but I can promise the freedom to live in the mortal realms for much of the year. You would still need to fulfill certain obligations here.”
Hesitation held her in check. “Why would you offer me this?”
Fire bloomed in the heart of his cold blue eyes. “It’s as much freedom and choice as I can offer you.”
“And?” She narrowed her eyes.
His lips turned up with utter confidence. “Because I’m certain you’ll want to stay.”
She stared at him in exasperation, dropping her arm and the trowel down by her side.
“Mark my words, by the end of the voyage, you’ll want to stand beside me with a crown on your head, making our enemies shake when you walk into the room.”
“Hardly.” Again, he had to be insane.
His grin was vicious as he strode closer, his earlier uncertainty long gone as he took hold of the lapels of her coat. “It won’t even be a question. But don’t worry, I won’t gloat. Won’t even bring up this conversation.”
His proximity and wild presumptions sent a blazing mix of furious heat and electricity down her spine, and yet her dark eyes gave none of it away.
“Hands,” she said coldly.
Aidan released her, conjuring the same goblet he’d used that day in the throne room when she’d unknowingly drunk her mortality away. He held it out daringly. “Do we have a deal?”
Voice even, she pointed out the obvious. “You didn’t state the rest of the conditions.”
He lifted the cup. “You wanting to stayisall I could want. No further conditions.”
She shook her head in utter amazement. “I cannot fathom the level of self-assurance required for you to believe I’d want to stay.”
A small dimple she’d never noticed before appeared near one side of his mouth. “The odds are in my favor. You’ll see.”
She pushed the cup back to him. “Becausedeath voyagesand forced immortality are the foundation of all great relationships.”
“No, but trust and friendship—learning about one another as we navigate the obstacles of fate—might be more romantic than you’d think.”
A laugh burst out of her. “This is going to be easier than I thought if that’s how you think of romance.”
Aidan set the goblet down, his gaze sharp and altogether too perceptive. “Possibly,” he acknowledged. “Or perhaps you’reunfamiliar with what it looks like for two people to know and care for one another beyond sex and separate ambitions.”
Elysia blanched, drawing back like he’d struck her, but Aidan caught her waist. “It wasn’t an insult. You survived a land that wanted you dead for existing. I could never fault you for any of it. You could go on a murderous revenge spree, and it would be understandable. You deservemore,is all…so much more.”
She didn’t know what to say to that—she had wished for someone, anyone to see her without judgment for so long. For them to know all the horrid details and actions that haunted her with shame, and to still look at her like she was whole and wonderful and something more than what had happened. He couldn’t possibly know everything, or he wouldn’t dare to make such statements.
She took hold of the goblet, speaking in a low voice. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“I’ve made choices I hated too.” He held her gaze easily. “Yours don’t scare me.”
Elysia drank without hesitation, handing the goblet off to Aidan and wiping her mouth with a smirk to cover her discomfort. “To being the first platonic co-rulers of the death realm.”
Aidan choked, water spraying out of his lips, and Elysia smiled as she swept out of the greenhouse with a new pep in her step. Her wrist burned as the floral background of her tattoo expanded around the helm, marking her skin with Aidan’s promise to give her as much choice as the fates allowed him.
Chapter 12
Elysia wasboth unsurprised and unimpressed that her death voyage was beginning where the disaster that was her life had begun. She’d returned to her bedroom from the greenhouse to find a sealed envelope on her pillow. The fates had finally spoken, and she’d leave the next day.
Afraid to travel directly to Lynd, she’d taken a risk and traveled to Rollie, landing somewhere in the tunnels, and scampering away before he could see her. Elysia crept through familiar tunnels and hidden stairs until she finally dropped into the castle kitchens, startling the daylights out of the closest kitchen worker. The girl shrieked as if Elysia were a ghost, dropping the large copper pot she’d been transferring to the iron stove.
Broth splattered everywhere, and the girl groped for words. “You’re, you’reher.” Speaking in a hushed tone, she looked around frantically to see if any of the other workers had noticed that the prince’s almost betrothed, now fugitive of the kingdom, had just landed right in the midst of their roast beef preparations.
