I had heard so much about the mountain range from father’s emissaries when they visited Estlen long ago. Their words paled in comparison to the magnificence they held.
Each village and trade outpost we passed through, I was recognized with human eyes. My title had weight here. Who I was mattered.
It didn’t feel anything like home, but maybe it could be.
Fyn brought his horse alongside mine as my eyelids grew heavy. “Your Highness, do you need to rest?”
He had addressed me as nothing elseall day until I realized I’d rather him call me moonflower—or any other ridiculous name he wanted to call me. I doubted I would hear any of them again.
“I feel perfectly fine,” I muttered. “You don’t have to call me that every time you speak to me.”
“I am simply trying to fit in.” Fyn took a sip of water from his flask.
He towered over me and the human men that escorted us. The points of his ears poked out between his windblown hair. “I’m pretty sure there is nothing you can do to fit in.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment.”
“I’d be slightly concerned if you didn’t.” I gripped Ivy’s reins tighter in my palms.
“Humans stare a lot.”
“I certainly wouldn’t know how that feels.” I tossed my braid over my shoulder.
“No one stared at you in the Heart,” he said.
“Maybe you just didn’t notice it.” They always stared at me everywhere I went.
“Even if they did, how is it any different from being here? No one seems to take their eyes off you.”
I fought the smile that climbed across my lips.
He steadied his mare’s even pace beside mine.
The palace’s marble walls were etched with a scroll design. The ironwork door was illuminated with the candlelit halls from within.
Fyn helped me lower from the saddle. “Do you not find it odd that he isn’t here to greet you?”
“I’m grateful he isn’t.” I was a mess from the road. I smelled like it too.
Lord Remus stepped in front of me. Gesturing a lady’s maid that stood near the castle doors forward. “The princess is ready to be shown her chambers.”
She curtsied before me.
“Lord Fyn, you and your men will be shown yours in our guest wing,” Lord Remus said.
Fyn looked past me to the castle door. “I will require chambers close to the princess.”
The human lord crossed his arms. “My lord, I don’t know how things are done in Nythrel, but there are certain expectations here. A member of a royal family?—”
“I am not asking to stay in her room. Just within the same hall.” Fyn’s eyes caught on mine.
“I can seek permission for such arrangements to be made, but they may not happen tonight,” the lord said.
Fyn towered over him. “I am under King Lioran’s orders to be her personal protection. It was outlined in our correspondence.” Fyn’s hand fell between me and Lord Remus. “Wherever she goes, I do too. It will not wait until tomorrow.”
There was an intensity in his glare.
Lord Remus turned to the lady’s maid. “Prepare the chambers beside the Princess for Lord Fyn.”
