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“What’s this?” I pull my hand back to stare at the sapphire ring on my finger.

“Do you like it?” Lux asks. “I wanted to give you a proper proposal in the sunflower field, but it all went so wrong.” His thumb swipes over my wrist. “I hope this ring can begin to make things right between us.”

“Us…” I stammer. “There is no us.”

“Eden,” he sighs.

“Let go of me.” I squirm against him, but he’s too strong and my muscles feel like I’ve run around the manor a hundred times.

“Shh. You’ll hurt yourself again.”

“How did my ankle heal so quickly?” I demand. “What was in that medicine?” It must’ve been some kind of faerie herb. Sprained ankles don’t just fix themselves overnight. And I feel so groggy and weak. Like I’ve slept for days.

“It was just a sedative and a pain reliever,” he replies.

“It can’t have been. I’m not stupid, Lux.”

“That’s all it was, I promise.”

“But bones don’t just—” Something outside the window makes me pause.

The sunflower field… It’s gone.

What once was a sprawling meadow of yellow blooms is nothing more than a field of mud. But it’s not just that. The trees have lost almost all of their leaves, and there’s something sparkling on my window.

Frost.

I shudder, but not just from the wintery chill in the room.

“How long was I asleep for?” I breathe.

“Eden…”

“You said you gave me a sedative.” I can barely hear my own voice. This has to be a dream. This can’t be real. But when Lux’s smile fades, I start to doubt that all the dreams I had ‘last night’ were even dreams at all. “How long was I asleep for, Lux?” I yell.

He frowns. “A month.”

“A month?”

“It was the only way I could ensure that you healed properly. Your ankle⁠—”

“How is that even possible?” Bile rises in my throat. “You drugged me for a month?”

“I fed you myself three times a day, and your servant kept you clean. And now your ankle is fully healed, so there’s no risk of any long term damage.”

“But my sisters…” My eyes water. “They won’t even know that I’m alive. I haven’t written⁠—”

“Your family understand that you were injured.” He pulls me closer to him. “But you’re better now, so you can write to them yourself. I’ll bring you some parchment.”

A month. An entire month of my life that I have no memory of aside from a few hazy dreams that may or may not have been real. I shake my head, trying to keep my breath steady. “You can’t just drug someone…”

“You’re my mate, Eden.” His voice deepens. “I had to keep you safe. You were a danger to yourself.”

“For a month!” I cry. It was early autumn when I arrived here, what date is it now? How many of my sisters’ birthdays have I missed? Iris’s? Maybe even Gilia’s… “I have to write to them. I need to speak to my sisters.”

“And you will,” Lux pushes me back against my pillows before I can escape, “after you’ve eaten breakfast.”

“No. I have to write to them now.”