I held onto my smile, blessing those months of being a princess without Dain by my side. The idea of making out with him in the garden made my skin creep, but blatant rejection didn't seem like a good idea. "I would be happy to walk with you, Lord Yllavar," I answered. "As to what else you might offer, it would be a shame to provoke the crown prince so thoroughly after all of his restraint."

The man laughed, and offered me his arm. I took it, and he steered me out into the gardens, taking me into the sunken gardens. The cool spring air swept across us, feeling wonderful after the humid warmth of the ballroom. For a while, we meandered together in silence, pausing in front of night-blooming flowers and admiring the light of the gibbous moon on the surface of ponds.

At last, though, he made an amused sound. "You know, I expected someone different than you when I arrived."

"Oh?" I asked, my skin prickling as my heart rate sped up.

"Mm," the lord said. "Your soulmate was very distressed when he answered questions about you. Some of the things he said..."

"I ask that you do not continue that thought, my lord," I said, keeping my anger behind my teeth. "We were having such a lovely stroll." Rekindling war between Stag Court and the Court of Mercy is a terrible idea, I reminded myself. Do not make what Dain endured worthless.

He laughed again, a bright sound. "Such ferocity," Lord Yllavar said in a charmed tone, as if I was a yapping terrier. "The two of you truly are a matched set, your highness, though I would expect no less of soulmates." He looked over at me, his cerulean eyes striking even in the moonlight. "I have spent these weeks trying to determine what you find so despicable about him, to deny him his heart's desire. Perhaps Stag Court believes only what they want to see when he looks at you with such heat in his eyes, but I lack the obsessive hatred of your lovely Queen."

I trembled from the effort of not snapping at him, with that eager little smile turned on me. He was baiting me, and I knew it, trying to see if I was the weak link, and not Dain. I won't give him the satisfaction, I told myself grimly. "And what conclusion have you come to?"

"You watch him," he said in a voice like an oil slick. "You look at the way he moves and at that disgusting pair of arms on his back. He doesn't ever touch you, and you never touch him. Your highness, I think you find him as gruesome as the rest of us." The lord's eyes seemed to darken, and he ran his fingers down the side of my arm. "I think he knows it, too," he said. "Has he ever shown you what he really looks like?"