Riyan held me around the waist again and lifted me onto his left shoulder. My hands gripped his cape underneath me as I settled in right next to his neck. My legs dangled near his chest as I steadied myself. I leaned my right shoulder against the top of his head as his long hair fell intomy lap.
My eyes were even higher than Riyan’s. The sky was bigger. The trees were shorter. The mountainside looming over us was even less intimidating. Mist curled in the distance. Wind kissed my cheeks. I closed my eyes and tasted the air—the crispness of the magical wilderness mixed with nectarand wheat.
Riyan’s step hitched on uneven ground. My stomach lurched as I wobbled backward, but Riyan’s left hand caught my back before Icould fall.
“You’re scaring me up there.” His palm pressed into the left side of my ribs and hips. His fingers curled across my back to grip myright side.
I glanced over at his arm that curled up to hold me in place on his shoulder. Even he would get tired if he held me like that the entire journey. I worked my hands through his tangled strands of hair falling on my lap and gotan idea.
I dug through the pocket of my skirt until my fingertips touched the sharp tines of my silver comb. I took the comb out of my pocket and gently raked throughhis hair.
“I don’t think I need to look pretty for Fraleigh,” Riyansaid wryly.
“It has a purpose!” I laughed as I untangled afew strands.
Once I had banished the tangles, I quickly braided a few strands of his hair together like a rope. I held on tight to the braided hair withboth hands.
“There!” I said into his left ear. “Now you do not have tohold me.”
“Have to? Maybe I wanted to hold you.” He hesitantly removed his hand from my back and lowered his arm. “At least you found a use for all this damn hair. I was never allowed to have hair this long. General Hyton always chopped off myhair himself—”
He cut himself off. I waited for him to say anything else about his father, but hekept silent.
The mountain ridges around us grew shorter and shorter as we followed the setting sun and ascended the path. Birds stopped singing. A hairy goat with curling horns stood in the rocks and watched us with a too-knowing eye. I held tighter onto Riyan’s hair as we walked further intothe wilderness.
I looked west. Through a break in the rocks, golden needles speared the sky in the distance. I placed my hands on top of Riyan’s head and lifted my body to get a better look. The golden needles were really spires on top of gildedtowers—Fraleigh’s palace.
My cheeks rose with my smile and I dared let myself indulge in a taste of hope. A flicker of excitement rushed through my veins. My fingertips curled on top of Riyan’s head and my nails grazedhis scalp.
Riyan squirmed and his head jolted back. I gripped onto his hair and held on before he steadied hisshoulders again.
I laughed. “Big, tough Hero of Lycaster has a weak spot, I see?” I gently scratched againfor emphasis.
Riyan’s neck and shoulders trembled like he fought a shiver. “Oneof many.”
“You know, I never heard exactly how you earned that title.” I gripped the braid-rope and settled back on his shoulder. “The Duke told the story of the battle at that celebration but first I heard fromGrigory Thornebow—”
“Grigory Thornebow?” He spat out the name likea curse.
“His younger sister was a year below me in school,” I explained. “He sent her a letter after the victory and then told me about the battle himself when we danced at theSuitors’ Ball.”
Riyan scoffed so forcefully that I bounced up on his shoulder. “I still cannot believe he dancedwith you.”
“Each suitor issupposed todance with each bride at theSuitors’ Ball.”
“Hey, I wasn’t allowed to go,” Riyan retorted, defending himself against my barb. “General Hyton said I would have scared you girls halfto death.”
“As opposed to only scaringmehalf to death when you just appeared unannounced onSelection Night?”
“In the army, we call thatrisk management.”
“In the real world, we callit cruel.”
“Well, it’s a good thing I didn’t go,” Riyan said with a lighter tone to his voice. “I wouldn’t have let Thornebow dance with any of the girls at all. Probably would have causeda riot.”
I remembered Grigory’s hand pressed into my back and my chest against his. I could still feel his breath on my ear as he hissed about Riyan’s beastly heart. I gulped, remembering how hard Riyan threw Grigory into the palace wall the night of Annalisa’s ball andthreatened him.
“Why do you hate Grigory?” I asked. “He seemed nice enough whenwe talked.”
