“For a voyage. Through Glace.” He holds out the paper that gleams with neat silver letters.
I can make out my name and that of his kingdom, but all the other letters are too slanted, too squashed, too small. And they wobble to the drumbeat of my heart.
“By train,” he adds. “Activities include reindeer spotting, ice fishing, skating, a visit to the greenhouses, a soak in the hot springs, and anything else you’d like to do.”
I lift my wide eyes to his, trying to make sense of his words, since they are nothing like what I expected to find within that parchment.
“I wanted to show you my kingdom. I know you have wings, but I don’t. Obviously, you have no need for a ticket to board any of my trains, but I thought…” He crinkles the paper in his fist. “I’m not sure what I thought.” His lids twitch. “The other is a more useful gift.”
I clasp the back of his neck and tow his head down to mine. “Ilovemy present. I cannot wait to see and experience all that your kingdom has to offer.”
I kiss away the tiny spasms caused by his nervousness before pulling back and concentrating on my next gift. As he carries the parchment to my desk and sets it there for safekeeping, I click open the box. My lungs seize and the corners of my mouth catapult downward when I spy the creation cushioned on the sky-blue silk.
“What was I thinking, gifting you a dagger?” He treks back to me in three long strides, gait rigid with tension. “You have talons and blood at your fingertips. You’ve no need for a weapon.”
“That’s not…that’s not?—”
“It’s all right.” He tries to wheedle the box from my fingers.
I clamp down on it. “Stop. Let me…just give me a minute to explain the reason for my reaction.”
“Isla, it’s all right.”
“ItstheweaponfromtheprophecyKonstantin!” I hiss on a single breath. “It’s the weapon with which…”
I lick my lips, my pulse suddenly buzzing with something other than trepidation. I was wrong to worry that Izolda would be ambushed and forced to murder her niece!I was wrong!
“It’s the weapon with whichIkill Mestyla.” A thought occurs to me then. “Did you know?”
His pupils throb. “No.”
“So, you gifted this to me by complete chance?”
“Not by chance.” He scratches his nape. “Since you sealed the talisman to my neck, and the thing throttles your shifter magic, and I want to keep you close to me always, I thought…well, I thought it would make you feel safer.”
“Thank you.” Again, I hook his tension-filled nape and draw him low for a kiss.
Little by little, his vertebrae untense and his shoulders uncoil, softening not only the edges of his body but also the texture of his mouth. His respite is short-lived, though.
By my own fault this time. “What did Mimi say?”
His gaze darts to the table I wheeled into my bedchamber after the attendants delivered it in front of my door. Though they insisted on coming inside to set everything up, I didn’t let them past the wards, keeping the access to my chambers limited to a select few.
“You swore you’d tell me,” I prod.
His jaw flexes. “How about we eat first and then?—”
“It won’t change how I feel.” When he begins to toy with the shiny button of his standing collar, I sigh. “It doesn’t block shifter connections, does it?”
Without meeting my stare, he mumbles a quiet, “No.”
“Good.”
“Good?” he scoffs. “That means that I’m not”—he rolls his lips—“itfor you.”
I set the box down on the wooden trunk at the bed’s end. “Yet.” Unlike a moment ago, his posture doesn’t magically unstiffen. “Where are all these insecurities coming from?”
“My lack of ascendency over Glace. Over my home. Over my heart.” His gaze slants to the side. “The day you get yourconnection, Isla… If it’s not with me but itiswith someone from my kingdom…”
