But I couldn’t. His rage was choking me.
The shattered remnants of what had once been a door lay scattered at his feet in the wake of his fury. The same powerful energy radiated from him just as intensely as it had during our first encounter.
Nisien immediately positioned himself between us. Not a second later, an unfamiliar magic surged from him too. A faint distortion in the air shimmered like heat rising off hot stone, yet it formed a perfect oval in the air.
I’d heard of such magic but never seen it. Nisien had created an aegis, a defensive shield of magic, in front of himself, in front of me, to protect us from his brother’s wrath.
The instant my eyes met Emrys’s through the shield, the world tilted on its axis, and all I could hear was my racing heart. I was watching him so intently that I saw an unguarded, fierce emotion blaze briefly across his face before being masked again.
Emrys immediately formed impenetrable walls around his emotions. I knew then that he recognized me.
Closed off, Emrys was still breathing hard, his nostrils flaring with barely contained rage. A quick, appraising flicker of his blue eyes took me in, like a lion assessing its prey. Then he straightened slowly, awkwardly, as if he’d been expecting a stranger but had gotten a knife to the gut instead.
I lifted my chin, refusing to be the first to flinch, or the first to look away. Gods, Nisien’s blue eyes had reminded me ofEmrys’s.
As his brother stood, Nisien dropped his defensive magic. He made a grand gesture between us, seemingly oblivious to the sudden tension between Emrys and me. “My brother,” he said warmly. “Don’t mind his scowl. He was born frowning.”
I smiled politely, still reeling from the emotions that had battered my senses. “I remember,” I said, trying to keep my voice light and casual, though my heart still pounded. “We met in Caervorn. He was…memorable.”
Nisien laughed, clapping his frozen brother on the shoulder. “That’s the first time anyone’s called him that without spitting afterward.”
Emrys said nothing. His jaw was set, his arms crossed so tightly that it looked like he was just barely holding himself back from destroying another door. Through all this, his unblinking gaze remained locked on mine, trying to solve the riddle of my existence.
I gave Emrys a small, measured curtsy. It was the kind of gesture I hoped communicated,I might be afraid of you, but my spirit isn’t yours to break, not yours to crush like that door had been.
Through all this, my magic reached out to him without my will pushing it forward. It had never done that before meeting him. But now it was trying to break through the impenetrable wall he’d erected around his heart and mind. I couldn’t understand it. After what I’d witnessed, why did my magic, why didIfind myself so drawn to his darkness?
But it was clearer than ever that this was going to be far more dangerous than I’d imagined, and not for the simple reasons the Assembly had warned me about.
Gods help me, these were the princes I was supposed to save. I would need a miracle to get anything accomplished.
Chapter 12
Emrys
There she was. Not ten feet away, framed in the wreckage of my restraint, was the woman whose very existence I’d begun to question. A face that had begun to feel like a dream now stood in my hall.
By the cursed gods.
Her sudden presence was so shocking that the ice-cold grip of the curse around my magic slackened in an instant. Just like that day in the market, when her magic had brushed against mine and the storm inside me paused.
I could still feel the beast there, waiting in the background for release. Waiting for the next excuse. It shied away from her even as it clawed at the cage, wanting to be nearer.
This was Nisien’s fault. It even felt like a setup. But why?
He’d announced the arrival of another diplomatic envoy from Caervorn as if it were nothing more than a casual aside. He’d kept the news to himself until the caravan was literally at our doorstep then nonchalantly rode away. But he hadn’t mentioned her.
I wasn’t prepared. I hadn’t hardened myself. And the curse, agitated since leaving Caervorn, rushed to the surface the moment I allowed myself to look her in the eyes, threatening to break loose in ways it hadn’t since my time on a battlefield.
“Isca?” I said her given name without even thinking of how it would look to Nisien, to her.
How was she here?
As I stared, her presence filled me with a strange joy that utterly terrified me. The people closest to me were always the first to get hurt. How long until it was her? How long until she ran? What if I couldn’t control myself? What if I—
“Prince Emrys,” she greeted sedately.
It would’ve been better if she’d spat my name like a curse. Instead, her voice curled around me like a warm blanket.
