Between These Broken Hearts

by Lexi Ryan

Genres: YA Dark Fantasy; YA Romance

Synopsis

Forbidden romance, mysterious prophecies, and the battle to save the fae realm come to a captivating conclusion in the #1 New York Times bestselling saga begun with Abriella in the These Hollow Vows duology and continued with Jas and Felicity in Beneath These Cursed Stars.

Princess Jasalyn has eleven days to live.

Jasalyn is facing the repercussions of a deadly bargain. Her life, and the future of the shadow court, are forfeit on her birthday unless she can stop the evil fae king Mordeus. She needs to face her greatest fears and find him before she runs out of time, but even after everything, Kendrick won’t let her face this alone.

Shape-shifter Felicity has vanished.

Felicity disappeared from King Misha’s dungeons, and her friends have been searching for her to no avail. But even if she’s found, Felicity will never be able to escape the oracle’s tragic prophecy for her and her family. In her lonely battle with fate, Misha is the last person she can ask to stand by her side, but the first one she’ll need.

 

Release date: July 22, 2025

Publisher: HarperCollins

Print pages: 464

Sample

Abriella

Another day of searching for my sister. Another day of chasing ghosts.

Rage is my constant companion. I’ve stopped trying to contain the rumbling shadows that swirl around my feet and fingertips. I no longer care whether Abriella, queen of the shadow fae, appears gentle or brutal, kind or intimidating. My sister is gone. My court is falling apart. And if the winds don’t change soon, all will be lost.

“We are running out of time,” I say, spinning away from the setting sun to scowl at my visitors.

“You think I don’t know that?” When Hale Kendrick’s ice-blue eyes meet mine, they contain the fury of a tempestuous sea. “You think it doesn’t haunt me every day I fail to find her? Every day I fail them both?”

The ache in my chest intensifies at the reminder of my selfishness. I’m not the only one whose sister is missing. Kendrick lost the woman he loves and his sister, Felicity, in the same day. He hasn’t rested since, and the dark circles beneath his eyes hint at the exhaustion his posture never reveals.

Months. We’ve been at this for months and have nothing to show for it.

I thought this time would be different, but now I realize desperation was making me see what wasn’t there. The rumors of Jasalyn sightings hurt the stability of my court as much as they hurt my heart. Some say she ran back to the human realm. Some say she is hiding out in the Seelie Court. Too few believe she is with me, staying in the safety of the Midnight Palace until her eighteenth birthday.

Every rumor, every speculation makes me rage. And I can’t even defend my sister by sharing the truth because seers across the land have whispered prophecy about the shadow princess, and one hint of the truth of the ring and her blood magic connection to Mordeus would be the end for me. The end of everything good I’ve tried to bring back to these people.

Claim the princess and control the court.

“You said you had a lead. That someone had seen her. Was it lies?” I demand. That’s why they’re here, after all—to update me on their latest efforts to find Jasalyn.

Kendrick’s friend Natan nudges his spectacles up the bridge of his nose and steps forward. “It was more of the same,” he explains. “Someone knows someone who saw her—but tracking the rumors didn’t yield anything.”

Of course it didn’t. We can never find anyone who saw her with their own eyes. And I am unable to search for her myself because I have to remain at the palace and pretend she isn’t missing at all. We’ve had a trusted shifter take her form to make the occasional appearance on various palace balconies, but without Felicity’s special gifts, we can’t risk allowing anyone close enough that they might suss out our deceit.

I shake my head, the same questions that have haunted me for months spinning through my head. “If we can’t find her because of the ring’s magic, why are there any memories of her appearing at all?”

Natan shakes his head. “This ring—it’s a conduit to some of the most powerful and complex magic I’ve ever seen. Perhaps the magic is changing. Or perhaps the rumors are just rumors and that’s why we can never find a true source.”

My gut folds in on itself at the hopelessness of it all, but I keep my chin up, my face impassive. We haven’t lost this yet. Haven’t lost her yet.

“With all due respect,” Kendrick says, folding his arms, “finding her might prove futile without this mythical stone your seer claims can nullify the ring’s magic.”

My temper flares, my shadows surging alongside my rage. Because he’s right. The idea that we could have found her and simply 

 don’t remember is as devasting as anything. And even if that hasn’t happened already, if I don’t track down the Stone of Disenchantment, that is exactly the challenge we have before us.

Finn, my king, my love, my bonded partner, places a hand on the small of my back, and I draw in my first full breath since Elora’s chosen king returned with more bad news.

“Misha is investigating a lead on Felicity,” Finn tells Kendrick, smoothly shifting the subject away from my futile search for the stone. I’m glad he’s clearheaded enough to share this latest bit of news. If someone could give me a small shred of hope regarding my sister, I’d want to hear it.

Finn looks to me and I give a subtle shake of my head. We won’t give this male more hope than that. Not until Misha brings Kendrick’s sister back safely.

“Misha’s team still believes she lives,” I tell Kendrick. Like me, he’ll have to sustain himself on scraps of hope, and when those scraps aren’t enough to put a dent in the fear and grief these months have planted in our hearts, we plow forward nonetheless.

Kendrick squeezes his eyes shut for a beat. “I choose to believe the same. About them both.”

“We’re running out of time,” I say. “On Jasalyn’s eighteenth birthday, she’ll be lost to us forever, and the future of the shadow court right  alongside her.”

 

Chapter One
Jasalyn

They don’t fear me in this body. Obedience comes with hesitation. With doubt. So I teach them the cost of their uncertainty, burning their fields and their homes with the flames that should be mine to command, burning it all to ash and painting the horizon in the reds and oranges of my rage.

She locks her power away from me, even now. Even weak as she is. But I will command it when the time is right. The seers have foretold this. They think they can steal my destiny. They think they can keep me away from my rightful life, my rightful court, my rightful throne.

I will take it all back or I will burn it to the ground.

 

“Princess. Pretty, pretty princess. Wake up now, you foolish girl.”

The words are too far away. A shout from a distant realm. A call from the shore to my submerged body.

Sleep has me in its grasp. Weakness weaves around my bones, worming its way into my muscles, forbidding me to do so much as open my eyes.

The ring. I know it’s the magical ring that is stuck on my hand making me so useless. Pushing me closer and closer to death. I’m teetering on the edge, peering into the abyss, craving the relief from this whole-body ache.

“Come now. Enough of this.”

A cup is pressed to my lips—cool ceramic prying them apart before something hits my tongue. Thick, warm, and sweet.

My eyes flutter open to see the faerie leaning over me, a steaming mug in her hand. “I need to go to Feegus Keep,” I tell her. Tell myself. I shouldn’t need to be reminded. Mordeus is using me—to kill hundreds, to bring himself back to life—and I won’t be the reason he returns for good. Kendrick thought Feegus Keep might hold the Sword of Fire, a sword that he says will open a portal to anywhere you want to go, a sword that can kill anyone. I need to find it and end Mordeus. I can’t undo my mistakes, but I can do this.

I look around the room. It’s not too dark to make out the silhouette of the short, stout female at my bedside, but it’s dark enough that I never would’ve chosen this place to rest if it weren’t for the ring’s magic weakening me.

I pick through the cobwebs of my thoughts, trying to remember how I got here. I was staying with Kendrick and his friends at Ironmoore, an Eloran settlement, when the town was attacked by a wyvern. That night I dreamed the most awful thing—about Kendrick being someone else, about him working with Mordeus.

Then I found out that every session of torture Mordeus made me endure in his dungeons was blood magic, and that now, because of that and this ring, Mordeus has some level of control over my consciousness. He used me to do horrible things. This ring makes me a murderer with death’s kiss, and some of those deaths I chose. The people who worked for Mordeus and tortured me in those dungeons? I wanted to watch them die.

I never would have guessed that I was personally resurrecting Mordeus with each life I took.

The female snaps her fingers in my face. “No more sleeping. You’ve done enough of that.”

 flicks her fingers and the lantern at my bedside flames to life. “Climb out of this bed now,” the faerie commands, yanking the piles of blankets off me. Her thinning gray hair is pulled into a knot at the crown of her head and her pale skin has a yellow undertone. She flicks my arm with her thumb and forefinger.

“Ouch.” I rub away the sting, but I do feel a little more awake. Is this her house?

When it became clear that my horrible dreams were actually Mordeus’s memories, I left Kendrick. I climbed into a farmer’s wagon and was far from Ironmoore when I remembered my goblin bracelet and asked Gommid to take me somewhere I could sleep. Somewhere I’d be safe. Where did he bring me?

“Now.”

My mind is too fuzzy to piece it out and I’m too tired to argue, so I sit up and swing my legs over the side of the bed.

I vaguely remember Gommid grumbling about my foolishness, about how he warned me about the ring. The last thing I remember is ignoring his rant and crawling into a soft bed. This soft bed? Maybe, but I was too feeble and sick to pay much attention to my surroundings.

How long did I sleep? I feel better than when I called for my goblin, but weakness still nips at my heels. Maybe I just need some food. It’s been too long since I’ve eaten anything.

You need the Sword of Fire. You need to find Mordeus and fix what you’ve done.

Coffee. Food. I just need something in my stomach, and I’ll be okay. Then I can find my way to Feegus Keep and hunt down the sword that legend says can kill anyone.

Food. Sword. Mordeus.

I still have the ring. I can do this. I meet the elderly faerie’s eyes and let the Enchanting Lady’s thrall fill my voice as I say, “Could I trouble you for some dinner?”

She shoves the steaming mug into my cold hands, ignoring my request. “Hurry now. Drink more of this.”

I bring it to my lips, greedy for more of the sweetness she used to wake me. “Thank you.” I sip, and this time I’m awake enough to identify the flavors dancing on my tongue. Warmed chocolate spiced with cinnamon and clove.

The concoction soothes my riotous stomach as it goes down.

She studies me. “I trust you slept well.”

“I—” I shake my head. Who is this female? She called me princess. How does she know who I am? “Yes, thank you. Could you please make me some food?”

She rocks back on her heels and frowns as she looks me over. “Stick with the drink for now. It’s too soon for food.”

I frown at my ring. This ring makes everyone do my bidding. The only ones who have been immune are Abriella and Kendrick. And now this faerie. “You don’t want to make me food? Even if that’s what I want?”

She props her hands on her hips. “You should consider yourself lucky I didn’t kick you out of my house. Ungrateful child.”

Her house. Does Gommid know her? Did he know he was bringing me to her house? “I’m sorry. I thought . . .”

“You think I should be bowing at your feet because of that ridiculous ring. I know.”

I instinctively check my mind for the shields Misha taught me to hold in place before realizing it shouldn’t matter. I shouldn’t need my shields when I’m wearing my ring.

“If you hadn’t noticed, goblins are immune to that particular enchantment.” She sticks out her hand. “Fherna, pleasure to meet you.”

I blink at her as I take her hand. A goblin. Of course. I should’ve realized sooner. “I’ve never met a female goblin before.”

“You probably have. You just weren’t paying attention. Just because our male folk spend their time escorting ungrateful creatures around doesn’t mean there are no females. Didn’t your mother teach you about the birds and the bees, my girl? About how babies are made?”

I bite my bottom lip to hold back a laugh before I realize—I feel like laughing. The cloying sickness from wearing the ring during the day has dissipated.

“It’s the drink,” Fherna says. “It mutes the pull of the magic.”

My heart sinks and I put down the mug. “I need my magic. I need—”

“Don’t be foolish,” she says, nudging the mug back toward me. “Your enchantment is intact. The drink mutes the magic’s ability to draw

from your life force.”

I glance down to my mug and then back up at her. I don’t know anything about this creature, so I’m not sure I should trust her so readily, but I’ve already come this far—sleeping in her bed and drinking her offering. I might as well listen to what she has to say. “Explain?”

“Magic is life, my dear. Life is magic. A ring that powerful was brought into being only because you sacrificed so much of your life to have it, but magic takes on the qualities of its creator. A magic like this is hungry. It takes and takes. It will draw from you until there’s nothing left.”

I shake my head. “I have until my eighteenth birthday. I have—”

“Don’t misunderstand,” she says, “that ring won’t kill you. He’s worked too hard to let that happen. But he wants it to keep you hovering around death until your bargain is complete.”

I set the mug down on the bedside table and gather my thoughts. It’s getting easier. Whatever she put in that drink is allowing me to think clearly for the first time since leaving Kendrick and the others. “Why are you helping me?”

Her face goes solemn. “Because if I don’t, everything changes.” She nods to my cup. “If you plan to find a way to defeat Mordeus, you best finish that.”

My breath catches. “How do you know all this?” This is why Kendrick never wanted to use the goblins. They know too much, he said. It seems they do.

She narrows her eyes. “I understand your exposure to goblins was limited when you were a child, but nearly four years you’ve lived in this realm. How do you understand so little about the creatures around you?”

I know that goblins are always collecting information. I know that they are the keepers of the history of the realm. “Then tell me, will I find what I’m looking for—will I find a way to defeat him—at Feegus Keep?”

She barks out a laugh. “We know facts. We know history. We aren’t seers.”

“You just told me everything changes if you don’t help me.”

“That’s not seeing. That’s logic.”

Nonsense. Why do goblins always speak in nonsense? I take another sip of the warm chocolate and reframe my question. “Is the Sword of 

Fire at the keep?”

“It was once, if the rumors are true. Mordeus was said to have used great magic to shield the sword from anyone but himself.”

“And I can use it to destroy him?”

“The girl asks so many questions but has given me nothing in return.”

I turn up my palms. “What do you want? My hair? Nail clippings?”

She wrinkles her pointed nose. “I cannot be bought with such tawdry scraps.”

“Then what?”

“I want you to wake up,” she snaps. “To fight.”

“I’m trying. I’ve only just found out about Mordeus using me to come back. I came here only to rest before I leave to retrieve the sword.” I fold my arms across my chest. “If you want me to fight, tell me how. Tell me my plan will work.”

She purses her lips. “The Eloran Sword of Fire can be used to destroy anything or anyone if she who wields it is deemed worthy.”

“Deemed worthy by whom?”

“By the sword, of course.”

“If I’m deemed worthy, it could kill Mordeus? And it could take me to him?”

“If you’re deemed worthy, it could kill anyone and take you anywhere.” She shakes her head. “But you’re asking the wrong questions.”

I don’t have time to argue with her. She doesn’t understand. I force myself to set down my mug—no matter how delicious it is, I have more important things to do than linger over a treat. I push out of bed. “I need to go.”

She harrumphs. “You’re welcome, by the way.”

I wipe a hand over my face and shake my head. “I’m sorry. Thank you for letting me sleep here.”

“And for the drink?”

I nod and force a smile. I slept in this female’s house without permission. The least I can do is show a little gratitude. “Yes, thank you for the melted chocolate. It was truly delicious.”

She rolls her eyes. “Delicious? You didn’t notice anything else?” When I don’t immediately understand, she gives a heavy sigh. “Did you notice that you now have the strength to stand when before you

couldn’t even open your eyes?”

I frown at the mug and then toward the dark window. “The drink did that? I thought nightfall was bringing my strength back.”

She cocks her head to the side. “You have no idea just how insidious that ring is, do you? You’ve slept day and night, too weak to know time is passing you by.”

I tug at the ring, not that it matters. It won’t budge. I’d hoped that the weakness would abate in the nighttime hours, but if what she’s telling me is true— “Do you have more of this? If I don’t get what I need tonight?”

“I don’t exactly keep it on hand, no.”

“Do you have the recipe? Where can I find the ingredients?”

“The recipe doesn’t have to be so precise. I just added the chocolate and spices to make it more enjoyable for you.” She shrugs. “The forest is the easiest place to find what you need. If you’re not too squeamish.”

“Too squeamish for what?”

Her eyes light up, and when she smiles, the chocolatey drink is smeared across her teeth. “To drain the beating heart of an innocent magical creature.”

Nausea surges into my throat and this time it has nothing to do with the ring. My mug holds the dregs of the concoction. “Blood? You had me drink blood without telling me?” Moments ago I was ready to lick the cup clean. Now I want to retch the contents up and onto the floor.

“You feel better, don’t you?”

“I . . .” I close my eyes and focus on my breath until the nausea settles. “I didn’t know I was drinking blood.”

“You eat meat. I don’t see the difference.”

“The difference is that this is disgusting.”

“You didn’t seem to think so before.” She huffs. “It doesn’t matter. You’ll do what needs done when the time comes.”

“I thought you weren’t a seer.”

“I’m not. I’m an optimist.”

I hang my head and draw in a long breath. Yes, if the alternative is letting Mordeus use me to destroy my sister’s court, I would do worse than drink blood. “What kind of magical creature?”

age appears in the air between us. The creature looks a bit like a large bunny, complete with soft fur and floppy ears, but tiny little antlers sit on the crown of its head and thin, gossamer wings sprout from behind its front legs.

I shake my head. “It’s practically defenseless.” A shiver of revulsion shudders through me as I try to imagine drinking blood from the tiny creature’s heart. “I don’t think I can.”

“You killed dozens of Mordeus’s faithful for vengeance alone.”

My back stiffens. “They weren’t innocent.”

“You found a way to justify their deaths and you’ll find a way to justify this. If you want to survive, that is. Remember, you need not just the blood, but its life—you must take so much blood that you stop the creature’s beating heart. For the longest-lasting effects, make sure you drink the blood while it’s fresh. The magic fades the longer it’s separated from its life source.”

I stare at the ring and think of Skylar’s suggestion from the night before I left Ironmoore—that if all else failed, we rid me of the ring by cutting off my finger. I would be free of it and wouldn’t have to worry about sleeping for days on end.

What would be the harm in a missing digit when I’m already so scarred and the days ahead of me are so few?

But I need the ring. I need it to get into Feegus Keep, and I need it to find the sword. Surely Mordeus wouldn’t let an item so powerful go unprotected. I can’t conceivably fight my way inside. I need to be the Enchanting Lady and I can’t be her without this cursed ring.

The irony doesn’t escape me. I traded everything for this ring—not only my sister’s most sacred magical book but every day of my life once I turn eighteen. Now the ring is exactly the tool I need to find the sword that can get me to Mordeus and kill him once and for all, while simultaneously being the very thing that has kept me too ill to do more than sleep.

I will get what I need tonight. If all goes well, I’ll find the Sword of Fire and be able to confront Mordeus before the sun rises. Once he’s taken care of, I can figure out what’s next.

I can’t let myself think about that now. I traded everything for vengeance, and I can’t allow my mind to drift to what happens when there’s no more left to take.

“Feegus Keep,” I say, “it’s near here?”

“You’re still asking the wrong questions.”

“Please.”

She lifts her chin. “Chase the moon through the woods and beyond the lake. You won’t miss it.”

“Thank you,” I whisper. She nods and turns to leave the room.

I glance down at myself and realize the pants and boots that I was wearing when I fled Kendrick and his friends are already scuffed with soot, like I’ve crawled through a fire-ravaged forest. “How long was I sleeping?” I ask her back.

She peers at me over her shoulder and arches a wispy gray brow. “Over eight months.”

Everything inside me recoils in denial. “That would mean my birthday’s in—”

“Eleven days.” 

Chapter Two
Felicity

“Shouldn’t you be in bed?”

The words take me by surprise, pulling me into my body as if my thoughts had taken me elsewhere. I turn my attention to the voice behind me to find my brother, standing in the palace’s moonlit garden and smirking at me. Konner’s pale blue eyes and white-blond hair are a match to mine, but he spends most of his time wearing the fierce expression of a fighter. Not tonight, though, and the sight of his smile fills my chest with warmth.

“You’re back!” I hop off the stone ledge and run to him.

Konner pulls me against his chest and squeezes me hard. “It’s only been two weeks. I promised I wouldn’t be gone forever.”

I frown as I pull away. He’s right, of course. It hasn’t been that long, but part of me feels like I’ve spent my whole life with this gaping hole in my chest where my twin brother should be. I shake away the thought and squeeze his hands. “And I’m glad for it. I’ve been a little lost without you.”

He chucks me on the chin and smirks. “Really? Because I believe the last thing you said to me was to pull my head out of my ass before I lost my chance to marry the sweetest girl in all of Elora.”

“I mean, that advice clearly came from a place of love and adoration.”

“Sure it did.” He tips his head toward the palace, and it’s natural to head down the path by his side.

The stars are so bright tonight, as if the clouds from earlier in the day scattered at the approach of the moon.

“Do you want to tell me what has you wandering the gardens when the moon is so high in the sky?”

“Nightmares,” I admit. “I came out to clear my head before going back to sleep.”

His eyes are solemn when he glances toward me. “Want to talk about it?”

I bite my bottom lip. I hate to take myself back there, back to the loneliness and heartache that haunts my dreams, but this is Konner. I can tell him anything, and usually feel better once I do. “I have these recurring dreams that I’m . . .”

He waits a beat, then arches a brow. “Go on.”

I cringe. Is there any way to say it that doesn’t make me sound and feel pathetic? “That I’m all alone in the world.”

“Felicity,” he murmurs. “You know you’re not.”

I shake my head. “Maybe it’s because you’ve been gone and Aster hasn’t visited from Elora in an age. I don’t know. But the dreams are so real. I’m living in Faerie. On the run and hiding. I don’t have any family or friends, and I can’t even take my true form because it’s too dangerous.” I sneak a look at him, just to see if he thinks I’m crazy, but he’s looking up at the same stars that have been giving me comfort tonight and nodding.

“It makes sense.”

My chest squeezes tight. I didn’t realize I needed him to take my silly dreams seriously. “It does?”

“Well, yes. The only thing that matters to you more than Elora, more than home, is family. Your love is your motivation for all you do—whether it’s preparing to join the Seven or giving guidance to your friends. Your truest nightmare would be to have all that taken away from you.” His eyes, so much like mine, are tender when they scan my face. “What would the point of any of this be if you didn’t 

have your family?”

That fist around my heart loosens. “They make me feel raw. The dreams. Raw and terrified that I could’ve been there instead of here.” I swallow. “They just feel so real. What do you suppose it means?”

“Perhaps that you feel powerless against these unknown enemies that have been trying to find a way into our palace.” His lips curve into a facsimile of a smile, but I see the pity in his eyes. “Or perhaps it just means you have the best twin brother in all the realms.”

I cough out a laugh and swat his arm with the back of my hand. “Oh. I’m sure that’s it.”

He cocks his head to the side. “I am sorry, for what it’s worth, that you’re having nightmares. If it were up to me, there would be no bad guys and we would never have to leave the palace.”

“I don’t understand how they can hate us so much.” I wave a hand toward the palace. “This is all for the good of the realm. To protect those weaker than us. Why would anyone be against that?”

His gaze shifts back to the stars and he sighs. “Sometimes I think we’ve done you a disservice by keeping you here. We’ve done such a good job protecting you from the evils of the world that you can’t even comprehend their existence.”

“I’m not that naïve.”

He shakes his head. “No. You’re full of hope and belief. And that is just what Elora needs.” He flicks my nose, then slides his arm through mine. “Don’t change yourself, sister. Change the realm.”

He leads me through the heavy servants’ door and into the late-night quiet of the palace corridors. The halls are lined with paintings from the finest artists in Elora and lit by the glow of flickering sconces that line the halls.

He stops at my chamber door. “What if I told you someone gave me something for you before I left Faerie?”

My stomach pitches. “Did he?”

He pulls a pale green velvet pouch from his pocket and hands it to me.

I loosen the strings, dump the contents in my hand, and my breath catches as I find myself staring down at the most beautiful pair

 of earrings I’ve ever seen. They’re bloodred rubies wrapped in fine gold vines with tiny emeralds as leaves. “Why in the world did he think to send me such a lovely gift?”

“I believe they’re a sign of his affection. Not that anyone needs reminding.”

I study the earrings again. “Did he send a message with them?”

“A message?” He shakes his head and my stomach sinks.

I shouldn’t expect so much. He’s very busy, with more demands on his time than I can wrap my head around. I should accept the gift and be grateful.

Konner’s lips twitch and he nods to the doorway behind me. “I’m pretty sure anything he has to tell you he’d like to tell you himself.” Before his words sink in, he takes me by the shoulders, turns me around, and nudges me into my chambers. The door closes behind me with a soft click.

Just inside the door, the breathtakingly handsome king of the Wild Fae waits with a finger to his lips, and it almost doesn’t stop me from squealing.

His grin slowly grows as he looks me over. “Felicity.” My name is an exhale. A discovery. A relief. The dark waves of his hair are mussed, as if he couldn’t keep his hands out of it while he waited, and his skin is deeper golden than the last time I saw him, a testament to hours spent in the sun during our time apart, but those russet eyes I love so much are the same.

“I missed you,” I whisper, and the ache in my chest slowly drains away.

His gaze flicks to the door and then I’m in his arms, spun until my back is to the wall and my face is cupped in his big hand. “Not as much as I missed you.”

I tug my bottom lip between my teeth.

“You didn’t have to do this. I don’t need any gifts.”

His callus-roughened fingers tickle my palm as he lifts one earring, then brings it to my ear. “That’s too bad because I want to give you them all.” He slides it into place before taking the other. His fingertips scrape across my earlobe, and I shiver.

“Have you thought any more about what we discussed?”

My stomach flutters at the memory of our last conversation. “I thought maybe that was the faerie wine talking. If my brother has been pressuring you to think this way, and you don’t want—”

laid eyes on you.”

My cheeks flame hot and I drop my gaze. “I don’t know why.”

“Because you’re beautiful. And kind. And loyal. You’re more than I ever dreamed I would find in a partner, and I am prepared to do whatever your mother asks to have you as my wife. But only if that’s what you want.”

He dips his head and sweeps his lips across mine. They’re so soft and the kiss is so gentle, and I arch my back, pressing onto my toes as I part my lips beneath his. I want more. Our time together has been full of stolen moments and fleeting kisses, and never enough time alone.

Felicity, you have to wake up.

The words have me pulling away and looking around. “Did you say something?”

He arches a brow, amused. “While I was kissing you?”

“I mean, in my mind?”

I think I hear my name again, but this time it’s little more than a distant echo. More like a memory than a sound.

Misha cocks his head. “Are you okay?”

I focus and hear nothing. Feel nothing but the presence of the male before me. I shake my head. “I’m fine. Just a little tired, I think.”

“You aren’t sleeping,” he says. “More nightmares.”

I shrug, as if it’s nothing. “Can you stay? The maids always keep the guest room ready.” Not that I wouldn’t prefer he stay in my room, but Mother would never hear of it.

His throat bobs and regret shines in his eyes. “There have been developments in Faerie and threats against my court. I’ve spent too much time away, and it’s weakening the magic of the throne.”

Something twists in my chest, hard and tight. “Of course you need to be home. I can come to you sometimes.”

He slowly shakes his head. “Not until it’s safe. I won’t put you in danger.”

“I’ll be fine.”

He steps back. “Felicity . . .”

I see the resolve in his eyes, and it guts me. “I am not some delicate thing you need to protect. I love you. I don’t want to lose you.”

“Then wait for me.” His expression is so patient, even though I’m asking something I have no right to ask. I knew who Misha was when we first began our relationship, even before the rumors of a court takeover came to light. I knew what his responsibilities were and what his priorities had to be.

“The people who want to steal your court while it’s weak—they will do anything to spread their lies across your kingdom and remove you from that throne. Good is at a disadvantage against evil because we have morals. We have lines that we will not cross. They do not.”

“They don’t have this, though,” he says, stroking the side of my face with his thumb. “Because they will never know a love like this, they will never have as much to fight for as I do.”

Tears streak hot and wet down my cheeks as he lowers his mouth to mine. And for the first time his kiss isn’t fleeting. He angles his head and parts his lips and pulls me close. ...