We could play chicken with sex and we could play chicken with friendship because it wasn't what he wanted. Dain's heart had chosen, and nothing else would satisfy. He had chosen a long time ago, I thought, putting so many things into a new context.

He loved me. Dain loved me endlessly, with his entire heart.

"You didn't tell me," I said, more than a little dazed at the revelation. "You... you didn't tell me."

He laughed, the sound bitter and harsh. "What was I supposed to say to you? 'Leah, I know you're desperate to return home, but would you kindly consider that I wake up wet from dreams of you and would submit to the Bone Court's torturers for a year and a day to be your lover?'" Dain's head dropped, and with heat he added, "Not even my yearning heart can trick me into believing you would abandon your beloved family for the poor comfort of my scaled arms."

I sat there, mouth open, too astonished to say anything.

Dain shuddered all down his body, out to the tips of his twin tails. Then he exhaled, the tension in his shoulders and back draining away, and his tails sinking down to curl on the ground. "I know what I am. Faerqen designed me as punishment for my mother's hubris," he said in a flat, dead voice. "They called me the Beast Prince until I slaughtered the city of Phazikai, and then they had a better name for me. It's a name I deserve. I'm a monster dripping with blood."

He rolled his shoulders, then pulled himself upright and turned to face me. I stared across the garden path at Dain. None of the shyness or gentleness remained; this was Crown Prince Sundamar and this was the Beast of Phazikai, remote and hard, the sort of man who could look at a map and decide the way to end a war was to raze a city to the ground and kill everyone in it. The High Court all treated him like he was about to lose control at any moment, as if he was a rabid tiger on a diamond leash. They didn't know him at all.

"Look at me, Leah. This is the monster you're bound to, in all his brutal glory and full of desire he's helpless to control," he said in an ugly tone, spreading his wing-arms and curling their hands into claws. "You look at me like I'm worthwhile, but you've never truly seen the Beast. Have you really listened to the stories? Paid attention to how people talk about Phazikai?"