Because if I choose me own happiness, he will hate me.
“Because I willnae be the one who fails him,” she said, her voice cracking just enough to show the ruin beneath. “If I stop, if I choose a life fer meself... I’ll never be able tae look at me own reflection again. I’d be a ghost either way, Amelia.”
Amelia did not press further. She simply nodded once—a heavy, silent acceptance of a tragedy she couldn't avert.
“We’ll try the study again taenight.” The words left Enya with certainty she didn’t feel, something restless stirring beneath.
Amelia held her gaze, then gave a small, knowing nod.
Below them, the sounds of the hall drifted upward, the castle steadily reshaping itself for a wedding that was moving forward, whether Enya was ready or not.
Enya turned toward the window, watching the last of the light slide along the stone. Harald’s voice echoed faintly in her memory, too close, too warm, and her pulse answered it before she could stop it.
Taenight.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Harald shut the study door. He handled the latch with a controlled hand, but the quiet click didn't stop the roar in his head. He crossed to the table and gripped the back of a chair. He stared at the grain of the wood, waiting for his pulse to slow.
He had lifted her.
The memory was too sharp. He could still feel the way her weight had settled into his palms. He could still feel his body leaning into hers without a second thought. The great hall had been a chaos of servants and noise, yet he had moved through it like a man possessed. He had hauled tables like a common laborer just to give his hands something to do—anything to stop them from reaching for her again.
He told himself it was about leadership. If his people were to respect her, they had to see him claim her. That was a lie. Or at least, it wasn't the whole truth.
A woman shouldn’t leave him feeling so off-center, so stripped of his armor. Yet Enya did exactly that. It was the way she looked athim—that lingering, searching gaze that retreated the moment he tried to meet it. She was always calculating. Always deciding what to show and what to bury.
He pushed away from the table and headed outside. The sea air hit him, cool and salty. He breathed it in deep, trying to let the cold steady his blood. But even the wind felt like her.
She watches too closely.
There was a sharpness in her eyes. Intelligence. Resolve. And beneath it all, a current of something that tugged at him, pulling him toward a shore he wasn't sure was safe.
Leo fell into step beside him. He matched Harald’s aggressive pace without effort.
“Ye’re walkin’ like a man chased,” Leo said at last, his tone light, but his eyes like needles. “And there’s naething behind ye but yer own shadow.”
“Me shadow’s learned tae stalk me,” Harald growled, eyes fixed forward. “I’d best start worryin’.”
Leo huffed a short, sharp breath. “I’ve kent ye since we were boys. Ye dinnae pace like this unless somethin’s clawin’ at ye.”
They stopped where the ground dipped toward the sea wall. Harald braced his hands against the cold stone, his knuckles white. The salt spray stung his face, but it wasn't enough to kill the phantom heat of her waist against his palms.
“Say what ye mean, Leo. Enough wi’ the riddles.”
Leo leaned against the wall, utterly unimpressed by Harald’s dark mood. “It’s the lass. Enya. She’s gotten under yer skin like a splinter ye cannae reach, aye?”
Harald turned then, fixing Leo with a look that had silenced harder men. “She’s a political bond. Naethin’ more.”
“Aye,” Leo shot back, his teasing tone vanishing. “That’s what she is on paper. But in this yard? The way ye listen when she so much as breathes? The way ye watch her like she’s the only light in a dark room? I’m nae an idiot, me friend. Ye’re starvin', and she’s the only thing ye want tae eat.”
Harald flinched as if Leo had struck him.
Am I that transparent?
The thought was a sickening slide in his gut. He had built his life on being a fortress. If Leo could see the cracks, then the whole world could see he was crumbling.
“She’s clever,” Harald rasped, his voice breaking. “It makes her dangerous. I shouldnae trust her, Leo. Every instinct I have says she’s a trap, and yet…”
