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I was quite sure that she really was dreading this as much as me.

Just as I parted my lips, she took a quick breath and began to speak before I could.

“I’m going to be frank with you, your highness.” Setting down her glass, she turned to face me and lifted her chin, her dark gaze unwavering on mine. At her back, huge, jagged-edged wings the colours of a summer sunset folded in tight together, signalling her discomfort. “I will follow through with this marriage for the sake of my father’s kingdom, but it will be a marriage in name only. I have no intention of being a loving spouse to you. I have no intention of being faithful to you. I have no intention of living here with you.”

I stared at her in stunned silence for a few seconds. Her face was tight with apprehension as she waited for me to react, and I noticed just how beautiful she was. Heavily lashed eyes just a shade darker than her skin, a mass of tight curls tumbling around her face and accentuating her high cheekbones and elegant neck.

But I still wasn’t attracted to her, and I definitely didn’t want to marry her. She was still a stranger. And she wasn’t attracted to me either. She didn’t want this marriage any more than I did.

When I didn’t say anything, she swallowed and added, “I’m… sorry if that’s not what you want, but I thought it best to get it out in the open before the wedding—”

“I feel the same,” I said quickly, tightening my grip on the back of the loveseat as a grin spread across my face. “I mean I… I don’t want this marriage either, Ianthe. It’s nothing against you—”

“No, it’s nothing against you either,” she rushed out, her entire frame sagging in relief as she stepped forward. “I just… We don’t know each other, and I’m… well, I’m already in love with someone else.”

“So am I,” I blurted, then sucked in a sharp breath when I realised what I’d just said, my stomach dipping with a rush of exhilarated panic.

Before I could process what had just come out of my mouth, Ianthe was hurrying forward to clutch my arm.

“So what do we do?” she hissed, casting a fearful glance at the door. “My father is determined that this marriage will happen. He doesn’t care what I want. I’m the spare—my older sister will take the crown, while I’m just the puppet he uses to bolster his position and his kingdom in the meantime.”

“Yes, it’s the same with my mother,” I said, my voice slightly shaky. “She just wants me to produce heirs, because Presius can’t.”

“I don’t even want children yet,” Ianthe said, sounding terrified.

“And I don’t want to move back here,” I told her. “I live in the human world. I have a life there.”

“I’ve heard.” She offered me a hesitant smile. “And you have someone you love?”

Sheer terror made my stomach lurch again, but mingled with it was a wave of overwhelming pleasure. “I—y-yes.”

He was upstairs, in fact. But I didn’t add that.

“I told my father that I was going to marry Chrios,” Ianthe said woodenly. “It’s not even as though he is someone my father couldn’t approve of. He owns the largest vineyard in the kingdom and endless acres of land. He comes from noble stock. But Father simply refused. Said that wasn’t the plan.”

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s not your fault.” She gestured at me. “It sounds like you were dragged back here for this farce of a wedding yourself.”

I glanced quickly at the door, then stepped closer and lowered my voice. “Ianthe… that’s what I’m here to speak to you about.”

She nodded eagerly. “How are we going to get out of it?”

I took a deep breath. “There is a plan. I will tell you everything.”

—

I was feeling infinitely lighter when I got back to my rooms about half an hour later. Opening the door, I saw Vince on the bed, lounging back against the headboard and watching something on his phone.

He immediately dropped it and scrambled off the bed, striding toward me in a hurry. “You okay?”

“Yes.” I grinned at him, lunging down to press a firm kiss to his mouth the moment he was within reach. “Ianthe is fine. She doesn’t want this marriage either. She’s fully on board with the plan.”

Vince sagged in relief and kissed me again, cupping the sides of my neck possessively as his long tongue dominated my mouth. I went weak, eagerly following his lead, wanting to moan when his hips pushed into mine.

“Vince,” I breathed against his mouth, then kissed him again before trailing more frantic kisses along his jaw and down his neck. The adrenaline from my conversation with Ianthe was still coursing through me, coupled with the immense relief and the edge of unsettled dread that lingered beneath it all from being in the same building, the same world as my mother. That dread wouldn’t go away until we were safely away from Otherworld, and I needed to focus on something else. On Vince. I didn’t want to think about anything but him for the rest of the day.

“Let me spoil you,” I mumbled against his neck, wrapping my arms around his middle to cling to him. “While we’re here. Please.”