He raised a brow. “All?”
I narrowed my eyes. “It might allow useful ones like anger and vengeance.”
“That’s what I thought.” He smirked and waved a hand at me. “Please continue.”
“Well, he was not interested in a relationship with me, but he was pleasant company, and I enjoyed having him around. At least… until his friend came.”
Andar lifted his head in a look that silently said,Ah, I see where this is going.
I explained anyway. “I’d blocked his emotions, so while he remembered that he’d been making plans to propose marriage to her, he couldn’t think of any reason why he’d go through with that. Even when the young woman stormed into my court and demanded I free him, he wasn’t convinced. I proposed a puzzle. If she could solve it, they’d both be free to go. If not, she’d die and he’d be bound to my court forever. It was a complicated bargain with several potential outcomes, so I tied my magic to the puzzle to make the bargain’s effects binding and immediate. She agreed to my terms, and I knew I would win. It was not a puzzle designed for a human to solve alone, and her friend was not interested in helping. I was sure she would die. She’d already started to freeze when—”
My voice caught. I had been so sure she would die. I shook my head. “Sometimes people surprise us.”
Andar leaned across the bed with his hand extended again.
Surprised by his willingness to touch me after telling him all my weaknesses and cruelties, I set my hand in his. A heat ran from his fingers to my chest. Perhaps I hadn’t been so cruel. Anyone might have made a similar choice.
He squeezed my fingers, and I finished. “Something broke through my crystal magic’s block on his emotions. Feelings overcame him, he rushed to help his lady love, and they solved my puzzle. In completing a puzzle that I’d tied to my magic, they broke my hold on my own magic. It backfired, shot me into the depths of the Kahunamon Mountains, and trapped me in that cavern until you came. It was my own magic, and I couldn’t even get past it.”
Andar nodded. “And now you intend to get revenge on the two humans for your confinement.”
“Yes.” I let go of his hand and straightened up. “I know I only have your help for that, but I should have plenty of time to deal with Prince Bylur after them.”
He shifted backward, sliding off the bed and standing on the ground. “Then our destination tomorrow is still the Summer Chasm?”
I resisted the urge to bite my lip. “I… guess so?”
He froze. “What do you mean by that?”
“I—”I had not been very honest, and it was time. He’d find out eventually, and better now than tomorrow. “Civa Exima is the farthest south I’ve ever been.”
His jaw fell a fraction of an inch before he snapped it back into place. “You said you wanted to travel to the autumn kingdoms to find the humans.”
“Yes.”
“But you don’t have any idea where they are?”
I stood up, on the opposite side of the bed from him, and rose to my full height. “I’ve seen them on a map.”
An incredulous lilt tipped one side of his mouth. “So you’re looking for two humans who you suspect might be in one of the three autumn kingdoms—a realm you’ve never even been to before?”
I opened my mouth to form some kind of retort but closed it. He was right. I was fighting blind. But I’d beaten insurmountable odds before. “I know we need to go south to the Summer Chasm, cross it, and then head west until we hit the autumn courts. Since you’re from a summer kingdom, I figured you wouldn’t mind leading the way.”
“I see.” He rubbed his forehead with one hand and waved at the bed with the other. “We’ll have a long day tomorrow. You should get some sleep.”
Sleep.
Two of us.
In one bed.
I hadn’t thought of this when I’d asked him to pretend to be my husband so I could get informationabout Prince Bylur. Or when we ate supper. Now it was all I could think of. Did he expect—
The magic around us dissipated, and he whispered, “The sound barrier is gone. I can’t monitor it while I sleep.”
I nodded dumbly. So he did expect to sleep—
He gathered up the armful of blankets and pillows he’d been leaning on and carried them across the room. I stared, jaw-dropped, as he dumped them on the floor on the far side of the table and arranged them into a make-shift bed.
