“You shouldn’t be here,” she hisses into the silence. Then, without another word, I’m being tugged into her room. I kick the door shut behind me. “Where else would I be?” “Your own room, maybe?” “My room doesn’t have you in it.” My

“Where are you taking me?” I’m breathless and gripping the waist of his pants for dear life. He’s quiet for several steps. “Somewhere even the future can’t find us.” I smile sadly. “The willow tree?” “The willow tree.”

His sword clatters to the ground. Strong arms wrap suddenly around my waist before another drop of rain can fall from the sky. I’m being pulled closer, pressed flush against his solid body. With a tilt of my chin, he murmurs against my lips. “My pretty Pae. Tell me you missed me.”

Cruelty molded him into a king, where kindness would have only crippled him.

rather, what his father liked to call “a disgraceful lack of competency.”

“Oh, my pretty Pae.” His words are a murmur against my lips. “For once, it is I who will be your undoing.”

“You’re quite the poet, Prince.” Moonlight pools in the dimple that accompanies his grin. “And you the muse, darling.”

“Don’t make promises you can’t keep.” “It’s not promises I care to keep—it’s you.”

I don’t even need to turn around. The mere presence of her is familiar, branded into the hollow of my neck where her head rests, tethered to my ankle and forever tugging me toward her.