Her expression fell, and she wrung her hands. “I do not have another option.”
The words stung. Maybe because of how resigned and defeated she sounded. Maybe because I’d been foolish enough to hope she’d say,“Of course. I won’t marry him. We’ll find another way.”
“You didn’t even ask me if there was one,” I said, the words too sharp, cutting before I could sand them down.
Hurt gathered behind her eyes in a rising tide. “I do not believe it would have changed anything,” she said, voice thick with emotion.
I’d welcomed pain before, sought it out in brawls. It had been simpler. Cleaner than this mess of hope and devastation. I cast my eyes down.
“Clearly,” I muttered, “we must not have the same feelings.”
She recoiled and whispered, “I suppose not.”
Her words said surrender, but her body screamed grief. Her shoulders curled inward. My head tilted, brow pulling tight. Something was wrong. Whatwasn’tshe saying?
I wanted to grab her shoulders, shake the truth loose, demand she march into that dining room and declare she’d changed her mind. But the last time she refused Edric, she’d been cursed. That spell still bound her, centuries later. And Edric’s “apology”yesterday—the way he claimed his parents had orchestrated it all still didn’t sit right with me. There was something off about the king.
“Do you love him?”
Her eyes snapped to mine—wide, glassy. “No,” she said, hoarse, shaking her head furiously. “Of course not.”
I believed her, but that didn’t make any of this easier. Scrubbing a hand down my face, I asked, “Then why are you doing this?”
“Because I need my freedom more than?—”
“More than love?” I cut in. “More than a lifetime of happiness?”
“I have not the luxury of such things,” she snapped, her voice cracking.
“Yes, Quinn, you do.” I held her face between my palms. “I’m right here.”
Her hands came up to clasp my wrists. I willed her to see it in my eyes—the truth I hadn’t spoken. My heart already belonged to her, if she wanted it. I searched her gaze for the smallest sign, any proof that she might reach for it before I laid it on the altar.
She looked at me like I was her whole damned world, and she was seconds from watching it fall apart. She leaned in, eyes bouncing to my lips and back. “Then show me.”
Closing the distance between her, I tilted my head down. As I was about to kiss her, sunlight caught the massive ring glittering on her finger.
Guilt slammed a cold fist into my gut.
I froze and pulled away.
Her brows creased. “What is it?”
I laced my fingers behind my head, stretching the ache out of my chest. “Quinn, you’re engaged to someone else. To theking. We can’t be kissing in the garden of his literal castle.”
“You are right. Not in the garden.”
“No, definitely not.”
Her gaze dropped to the ground, then traced slowly back up my body. “Then, where would you like to kiss me?”
My hands fell to my sides. My heart tripped. “I…pardon?”
“Where would you…” She stalked closer, eyes glittering with suggestion. “...like to kiss me?”
“Quinn—” I backed up a pace. “It’s not a matter of, uh, location.” Then another.
“Do you no longer have interest in kissing me?”
