“Oh, but he did. The sword? The dog comment? Trust me, those meant something different than they seemed.”
“But...” I groped for words. “If he’s so dangerous, why don’t you just send him away? Issue one of those royal commands you were just talking about?”
He let out a long exhale. “Because. He isn’t beholden to me. Not in the way you think.”
I stepped toward him without thinking, folding his roughened fingers into mine. “Okay. Then if he won’t listen to you, we’ll have Merron and the stewards throw him out.”
He swore under his breath. “That’s just it. You wouldn’t like what would happen if we tried. Vick would...retaliate. He’d ruin everything you’ve asked me for.”
“What do you mean?”
His throat bobbed. “Imeanhe could destroy this second wedding you want so badly. With little more than a word.”
A thousand thoughts tumbled through my head. “Are you saying he has something over you, then? Something that could affect Amryssa?”
He stared for long moments, then glanced to the sky and dragged his free hand down his face. “Yes. And Hyperion help me, but I never intended to make such a mess of this. I never intended...”
He trailed off, looking more pained than I’d thought possible.
“What? What didn’t you intend?”
“Any of this.” His voice turned low and rasping, an intensity of feeling bleeding through and doing something strange to his accent. “Gods, lioness, but I didn’t intend tocarefor you like this. I thought I’d be marrying a pampered girl, not some woman of fire and steel. And yes, I wanted to try out marriage, but I never thought it’d feel so...consuming. Or that I’d end up wanting you like this. Or that I’d have to spend every day chopping wood because exhausting myself is the only way I can keep my hands off you. I never intended any of that, but you know how I feel about challenges, and here you are, the most spectacular one of all, because no one’s ever made me work this hard, or demanded so much of me, or commanded me to become the best version of myself merely so I could earn the right to stand in their presence, and now that you have, I fear I might be addicted, because I can’t imagine doing anything less with anyone else.”
He cut himself off, breathing hard, and I gaped, so stunned I could barely locate a breath. “You...what?”
“I’m fairly certain you heard me.”
The swamp had ceased to exist. I felt like I was hanging in mid-air—falling into those eyes of his, into warm, wide pools of violet. My insides dissolved until my skin contained nothing but glittering heat.
Ky squeezed my fingers. “I never intended any of that, but now it’s happened, and I’ve dragged you into the middle of it, and I can’t see any way out that doesn’t involve me disappointing you. And believe me, that’s the very last thing I want to do. But...I need to tell you the truth. All of it.”
I dropped his hand, reeling from the enormity of everything he’d just said. “There’smore, then? More than just you leading the brigands?”
His lips pressed together. “Yes. A very big something. About who I am.”
My stomach slid sideways. “But...you’re not the one who hurt all those animals. Right? You can’t be.”
“I—” Ky’s brow knitted. “Wait, animals? What animals?”
I gulped against a raw throat. “The dead ones. From when you were younger. And the seneschal’s daughter. The one you left the ball with, who disappeared for a week. That couldn’t possibly have been you. Iknowit wasn’t.”
He peered at me as if I’d spoken in some foreign tongue. There was no spark of recognition in his eyes. Just pure, unadulterated confusion.
“I’m...lost,” he said. “What are you talking about?”
“All those crimes.” My voice veered upward, as if taking flight. Why did he look sobaffled? “In Hightower. The horrible things everyone blames on Prince Kyven Windermere, but which can’t be things you’ve actually done.”
He blinked, and finally,finally, an ember of understanding flared. “Gods above. Isthatwhy you’ve hated me all this time?”
I swallowed a dead laugh. I didn’t hate him. I hadn’t hated him in weeks.
He took a tentative step, as if afraid I would back away. Which I didn’t. I was done with that.
“None of that was me, lioness. I’ve never hurt anyone or anything, I swear it. It’s not in my nature.”
My eyes swept the length of him. He shouldn’t have looked so achingly beautiful like this, draped in the eerie glow of the marsh. Especially because, for the first time since I’d met him, he actually seemed unsure of himself.
But we’d finally dug to the heart of what lay between us. We’d skinned the apple and sliced it open, exposing the constellation at the core. This was the real Ky, heartfelt and vulnerable, no mask in sight, and he was so damn glorious that my heart contracted painfully inside my chest.
