But it’s Olive who says one day while we’re walking through the market in Steel City, “The Outlaw King! Your Majesty, I had no idea I was negotiating with a secret rebel.” She gives him a bump with her shoulder.
Butthe Outlaw Kingsticks somehow, and we begin to hear it often. In the streets, in quiet murmurs, in messages left at the gates of the consul’s manor. At first, the remaining consuls seem a bit outraged, telling Corrick that it’s disrespectful and that it could lead to the elites turning against him.
“They already turned against me,” he says hotly. “If the people think I’m one of them, I welcome it. The elites could do with a little humility.”
And that shuts them up.
He’s as brave and steadfast as I’ve ever seen him during the day, and I’m frequently reminded of that moment on the ship when I lay across his chest and thought of the way he’d changed, becoming more determined. More resolved. I see it in his manner with the remaining consuls, in his demeanor with the guards, even in his unlikely friendship with Lochlan.
It’s at night that he shares his grief, in our quiet momentstogether where he doesn’t have to be an outlawora king. He can simply be Corrick.
“I sometimes feel like I see them in the crowds,” he murmurs late one night, when we’re curled together and a late autumn draft has started to slip through the shutters. “Isn’t that ridiculous?”
“No,” I say. “I thought I saw my parents formonths.”
He kisses me on the temple. “I almost called out the other day. It was just a man and his son pushing a food cart. I would’ve made a fool of myself.”
I swallow the lump in my throat, because I hear theneedpulsing under his voice. He misses his brother so much. He misses his best friend. “You wouldn’t have.”
He faces challenges, too. Assassination attempts are frequent. Some are amateurish and easily stopped. But some are more nefarious, and people have breached the manor’s defenses. I know Corrick is eager to return to the palace, which is more defensible. The wealthy patrons from every sector who come to call are almost worse. Everyone wants something from him. Everyone wants to pledge their “loyalty,” and for the first time, I find myself turning a bit cynical. It hasn’t escaped my notice that anyone with a daughter of marrying age brings her along to meet the new king, so she can pay her respects. Some of them are so obvious I half expect them to climb right into his lap.
What’s amusing is that Corrick pays them so little attention that I don’t think he’s even aware of it, until the night we’re preparing for bed and he says, “If Zora Chandliss loosened her corset any further, I’m not sure her dress would have stayed on at the dinner table.”
That makes me smile. “Oh, you noticed this one, did you?”
He frowns. “I notice all of them. I was hoping you didn’t.”
“I notice all of them, too,” I say, pulling at the laces of my own corset. The maid seems to have knotted it. “I know what they’re doing.”
He catches my waist, forcing me still. “Are they upsetting you?”
His eyes are so earnest, so intent. I have the sense that I could sayyes, and he’d order every single young woman to be stopped at the gate. I shake my head.
“I know who you are,” I say softly, and I press a hand to his cheek, letting my thumb drift along his lip. He leans into my hand and takes a breath.
“I could make them all go away,” he says, and his hands are warm and heavy against my waist.
“Oh, Corrick, you don’t have to order the guards to tell them to go away. Honestly. They’re just doing what their families tell them to—”
“I meant I could ask you to marry me.”
My hand freezes against his cheek.
“It would be different now,” he says in a bit of a rush. “There will be demands, expectations,risks. It’s not like when I was simply Prince Corrick—”
“Oh yes, when you weresimplyPrince Corrick. Truly the simplest time of my life.”
A smile finds his face, but his eyes are still serious. “You’ve seen a bit of it, these past few weeks. As my companion, you can be overlooked. As my betrothed, you could not. There will be pressures, as well. There are always worries when there is not a clear heir. My life is always at risk now, and yours would be, too. Even more than it is already.” He pauses. “To say nothing of future children. You know what was done to Harristan.”
He’s talking about the poison, the way consuls tried to manipulatehis parents—though his parents certainly weren’t innocent either. A little spike of fear pierces my heart, and I swallow.
“This is quite the proposal,” I say roughly.
“It’s not a proposal yet,” he says quietly. “I didn’t want you to feel obligated to say yes. I wanted to make sure you knew you could say no. That no part ofmeexpected you to uphold these—”
“I love you,” I say. “Of course I’m going to say yes.”
His eyes are still troubled. “You don’tneedto say yes. We could remain together without—”
