I licked my lips, twisting my hands together in my lap as sweat prickled along my spine and under my arms. "I think that he is more complicated than his reputation suggests, and that he wants to be a man worthy of love, your majesty." I took a deep breath, meeting her eyes. "I want to be his soulmated truelove."

That sharp smile melted into something like astonished delight, as if I'd told the best joke she'd ever heard. "You truly are a gift, dear girl," the Queen said, her predatory expression not matching the levity in her voice. "Let us hope that you might yet find such a balance with him."

That astonishing statement took me out like a right hook to a glass jaw. I gaped at her, mouth open and eyes wide. I... She... What?

The Queen tilted her head back and laughed, a true laugh of brilliant musical sound, her black hair cascading down. It sent fear coiling through me, terror, the sound of such joy from a person I associated only with danger hitting my ears with the same force as a wolf's howl reaching a fleeing doe. I tried desperately to pull myself together, my heart hammering and sweat dampening my clothing as I stared at her, my legs trembling from the force of my taut muscles.

She dropped her chin and smiled at me again, pleased and warm. "Dear girl," she said, her voice a poisonous caress. "Do you think you can save him with the force of your love, like some pretty piece of poetry? His story is shadowed with betrayal and soaked with blood. Do you think that pain will simply evaporate like dew in the summer sun, and all will be well?" She shook her head, sounding thoughtful as she said, "If anything can break him, it is love. Pain so hungrily finds ways to multiply."

My breath kept coming too fast, a frightened pant that made me feel like a cornered rabbit, as if I might die from my heart bursting in fear. I licked my lips, then said with care, "Dain doesn't need saving. He's doing that all on his own." I met her eyes, trying to control my breathing and to appear as if I didn't fear her. "And love doesn't have to end badly, your majesty. People are stronger when they love each other."