Dain wore his formal coronet, a series of golden antlers laced together, heavy and regal. I wore a simple iron coronet with short, wickedly sharp spines around the top and a band of gold on the bottom. We looked like royalty, the way a crown prince and his princess ought to look.

At the door to our suite, Dain paused, lifting my chin with the side of one finger and kissing me softly on the mouth. "Are you ready?" he asked when he broke contact, looking into my eyes from inches away with a searching expression.

"As ready as I'll ever be," I answered with a nervous smile.

He smiled back, then stood, settling into his powerful stance and rolling his shoulders. There was none of the closed-off coldness that usually accompanied Dain readying himself to face the world. Instead, he felt almost eager, like a lion about to leap out of hiding at a herd of gazelle, or a racehorse waiting for the stall door to fly open. Dain held out his arm for me, a hungry expression settling on his face.

I rested my arm on top of his with a sense of relief, lacing my fingers down through his. He hadn't looked happy to enter the fray since he'd returned from the Court of Mercy. Maybe ever, honestly. But Dain was happy now, excited to face whatever got thrown at us. Because it's getting thrown at us together, I thought, looking at him. Whatever happened, this had been the right decision. I should have done it long ago. He never should have had to pretend that he meant nothing to me.

Dain opened the door, and we stepped out into the world in affection.

He didn't get to have guards, and I was with him, so we'd dropped my guard rota down to two at a time. The two of them followed behind us about ten feet back, so that they wouldn't appear to be offering Dain any significant protection as we made our way to open court. It wasn't a terribly long walk as far as the weird palace geometry went (it was a lot further if you took any route besides the royal shortcut, which never failed to make my head hurt), and it wasn't public, so the first sight anyone got to see of us was when we were allowed out of our waiting room and into the throne room.