“You know me. I know you.” He leaned forward and kissed me.
But I knew Daziel, the boy who had lived with me for half a year, wide-eyed and delighted by small things and funny and outgoing. I didn’t know Cathmeus. I didn’t know anything about him, this prince from the wilderness, and panic started to flare in my chest. “You’re betrothed.”
“To you. Kaisa and I were never officially bound.”
“But you can be unbound to me and bound to her.”
He looked stubborn. “It’s not what I want.”
I let out a sharp laugh. “What if it’s what I want? Daziel. I don’t know if I can do this.”
“You can. I’ll come back. In two months. We’ll talk then.”
And what would we talk about? I wasn’t cut out to be a princess of the shedim. I wanted to be with Daziel, and I’d like to see his home, but I wasn’t born for royal courts and their intrigue. And Daziel was.
He must have seen my unease, because he brushed his fingertips against my cheek. “We’ll figure it out. I swear.”
“How?”
“I don’t know how. I just know—if we both try, we can do it.” He lifted his wrist to show me a red threadbare string wrapped around it. “Do you remember this?”
“Is that mine?” I gaped at him, astonished. “How did you get it?”
“You know the story? If you lose your bracelet, you’re about to meet your true love.”
“An old wives’ tale,” I dismissed.
“I found it before we met. It flew right into my chest. I tried to toss it away, twice, but the wind carried it back. Eventually, I put it in my pocket. I didn’t even realize it was yours until you mentioned yours was gone. Then I did a small spell to check.”
“Oh.” I felt strange and light. “What a funny coincidence.”
“Not a coincidence.” He brushed his fingers against my cheek. “Do you love me?”
I scowled at him. It felt below the belt, to bring up this one irrefutable thing. It also was so upbeat and undeniably Daziel that humor bubbled in me. “Doyouloveme?”
His lips quirked, and he pressed a quick kiss to my mouth. “Yes. Always. Even when you’re difficult.”
I narrowed my eyes but couldn’t stop my smile. “Fine. I love you too.”
“Then we will make it work. I’m not saying it’ll be easy. I’m not saying you’ll love my homeland immediately—though it is indisputably more beautiful than the human lands—”
“You’re not helping yourself.” I smiled, but it quickly fell away. “Your father said you had to get married soon. That you have responsibilities.”
He cupped my face in his hands, his gaze intent. “I love you. I have responsibilities to my family and my position, yes, but if we’re building a life together, I also have responsibilities to you. One of which is making sure you’re happy.”
“I do like being happy.”
“I thought you might.”
He kissed me. At first it was an easy kiss, but then I pressed myself harder against him, and he wrapped his arms around my waist. We lost ourselves, our bodies crushed together.
When we separated, a bittersweet ache blossomed in my chest, threatening to consume me. I wasn’t ready to go with him, but I didn’t want him to leave, either. It felt like a wound had been opened inside me, a gaping hole it would be too easy to fall into.
“I’ll come back,” Daziel vowed. “In the summer, when school is closed and there is time. We’ll meet each other’s families. See each other’s homes. And we’ll figure out how to be together.”
I pressed my lips together to keep them from wobbling, but I couldn’t keep the tears gathered in my eyes from spilling down my cheeks.Don’t leave, I wanted to beg.Don’t go. Stay with me.
But it wasn’t fair to beg someone to do something they could not. “I’m going to miss you so much,” I said instead, and wrapped my arms around him one more time. We were heat and sorrow and love. And I didn’t want to say goodbye.
