“But if it did… would you marry him?” he asked.
Soren didn’t care about me. He most certainly didn’t care about what my future plans would have been.
I thought about the question—the one I had never been asked. If I told him my truth, he’d use it against me.
I flinched, bracing for the starlight’s impact. “No.” The sensation flooded me until my body grew hot in places it shouldn’t—until it was suffocating me.
“You’re not the only one capable of reading people.” The look on his face was maddening.
I was desperate for the flare to release me, for my body to cool. “He hadn’t ever asked me.”
“Ah. Well, humor me, then.” He rolled his eyes. “Answer me freely, because I promise you will have something to lose if you don’t. If he asked you—and you could be with him, would you?”
Weeks ago my answer would have been no. Now my certitude ran as deep as my love for the fae lord that was locked away from me. I didn’t know what I had to lose or what I had to gain. “If that future could have existed, I would have taken it.”
I waited for his fury—for him to lash out at me.
“If I gave you a way to go with him, would you trade your title for it?” he asked.
It mattered little anymore. “I wish to be done with this conversation.” It was growing too painful to endure.
“No, you don’t. Not when you don’t know what I can giveyou.” He leaned back, still gripping the chair. “Go ahead, Ashlyn, ask me what I can do for you both.”
If there was more to it—if he would help us—I needed to know it. “What can you offer us?”
“A life with him far beyond these walls. One where I never have to see you again.”
I wanted that. I wanted all of it. “How could you offer me that?” He was stuck in this pact just as much as I was.
“Fyn has agreed to take you back.”
I waited for the starlight to strike me, but it didn’t. “And just like that, you will grant his wish?”
“I will. But just know if you go with him, you’ll be making quite the political mess.”
“Your trade with Bailoc?”
“Our trade with Nythrel,” he said. “I hear Lioran is quite dependent on our ore. The Heart is still a mess from the war and he’s trying to build a new palace—both require more of it… none of it is finished yet, is it?”
It wasn’t. “I wouldn’t know the state of his construction plans.”
“He’s ordered cartloads more. They’re paying more than they used to for it. And you going with Fyn… may just stop all of it. All of that money spent on something he can’t finish, because of you.”
“You will take it from them?” He taunted me with a future, only to rip it from my reach.
“If the Lord Chancellor of Nythrel steals the Princess of Bailoc, it would do more than just stop the trade, Ashlyn. Your sister and her husband would look complicit.”
I didn’t want to cost Aelira and Lioran anything.
It was as if I was trading myself all over again. Their peace for my life, or my future for political upheaval. “I can’t do that to them.”
“I only thought you should know before you decide. Because once you do, there’s no backing out of it.” His chilling glare held me. “It will be a difficult thing for you to choose between—political stability for your sister’s kingdom or the life of the fae lord you love.”
“His life?” I must have misunderstood him.
“A prisoner’s fate can so easily shift. Especially when he forced himself on my bride to be. That can’t be forgotten without consequence. What precedence would it set?”
I couldn’t move. I could barely breathe. “You know, he didn’t. You know what you saw.”
