I’d spent my whole life being the perfect princess, the dutiful daughter, the controlled heir. But loving Trew felt like finally becoming who I was always meant to be.
Falling felt like flying at the same time. It felt inevitable, like the slow bend of a river carving a canyon. Patient. Unstoppable.
His gaze searched mine, and I found something raw and hopeful there.
“Stay with me?” he asked, his voice cratering.
The question held everything he couldn’t say. I need you. Don’t leave me alone with these ghosts. Help me remember that some things are worth fighting for.
“Always,” I whispered, and I meant it in every possible way. “Never doubt. You’re everything.”
I slid my hand down to take his. His fingers curled around mine, and I started to lead him to the bathing chamber.
“I washed before I returned.”
With a nod, I led him to the bed.
Gavelle ruffled his feathers and settled on his perch, Pherin was already asleep, her body tilted into his.
At the bed, I unfastened the buckles holding his sword to his back and slid it away from him, gently placing it on a nearby chair.
He slumped on the bed and sat there, staring at the fire.
I ached. Oh, how I ached for this man.
I tugged at his tunic, helping him lift it up and over his head, before I tossed it onto the floor in the corner.
Firelight painted golden strokes across the planes of his chest, highlighting every scar, every ridge of muscle earned through years of battle. Flame shadows danced across his skin, turning him into living art. I had to resist the urge to trace each line with my fingertips.
He was beautiful in the way that made poets weep and kingdoms fall. But it wasn’t his physical perfection that stole my breath. It was the trust in his eyes as he let me see him completely bare, body and soul.
After loosening his belt, I slid that away as well, laying his matching blades in their sheaths near his sword. Other smaller knives followed. I divested him of his armor while shielding him with my own, wrapping it around us both. Daring anyone to try to get past it.
Each piece revealed more skin kissed by firelight, from the strong column of his throat to the broad expanse of his shoulders, to the lean tapering of his waist. The healing wounds on his chest he’d gotten while protecting me only made me admire him more.
The warm glow turned his skin to burnished bronze, and I wondered if I’d ever seen anything more beautiful than this broken king letting me tend to his emotional wounds.
“Pants,” I croaked. Each button I released was a barrier between us falling away. “Let me take care of you.”
Something in his golden eyes cracked open like a door he’d kept locked for years.
Each piece of armor I removed felt like peeling away the weight of his crown, revealing the man beneath the king.
“You’re safe now. You’re home.” In my arms, he could just be Trew.
“Knew you wanted to touch me,” he quipped, but there was no heat in it. Only endless sadness.
“One of these days, maybe.”
He stroked his fingertip along my jawline, stopping at my chin to tilt it up. “No maybe about it. You’re mine, Isi.” His voice dropped to that commanding tone that made other courts kneel and my body come alive. “I don’t give things back.”
The possessiveness should’ve made me bristle. I was a crown princess, not a thing to be claimed. But the way he said it, like I was something precious he’d fight wars to keep, sent liquid fire through my veins.
“I haven’t agreed to that,” I said, though we both knew it was a lie.
“You will.” His thumb traced my bottom lip with devastating gentleness. “Because you were made for me, just as I was for you. Some things are just inevitable.” Firelight caught the flames in his eyes, and I saw myself reflected there. This wasn’t the princess I’d been born, but the woman I was becoming. “You don’t want to admit it, and I understand. We hurt each other. We’re basically enemies.”
“Not any longer.”
