He was not sure. He could not imagine himself doing that any more than he could imagine himself staying while she drifted farther and farther away, out of his world and back into hers. There were only impossible choices left to him. He had never been one to contemplate the future. With the life he led, it was better to assume you did not have one, live each day as it came.

Aurora was the first to speak. With her hands folded in her lap and her head down, she said, “I know you must hate me.”

Kiran stood frozen, the muscles of his shoulders bunching even tighter. The only thing he hated was that he did not know how to act around her anymore. He wanted to reassure her, but he worried if he said more than a few words at a time his heart might come tumbling out after. He might tell her of the way he lay awake at night thinking about her, how he could close his eyes and recall the exact color of her eyes, and the curve of her chin, and the way her nose tipped up ever so slightly at the end. He would just keep going until he turned inside out from wanting her.

So he fell back on old habits, and asked his own question, rather than providing an answer. “Why would I?”

“Because…” Her voice shook slightly. “Because Jinx.” Her shoulders trembled, and she buried her face into her hands, and he was across the room before he even realized his shoulders had left the door.

He crouched down in the space between her and the bed, but did not move to touch her. “She made her own decision to accompany you into the palace. I have known Jinx a long time, and she does not do anything she does not wish to do. She knew the risk, and she went anyway.”

“For me,” Aurora whispered, lifting her head. Pools of tears made the light blue of her eyes look almost incandescent. “She took the risk for me. You must wish I had never walked into the Eye.”

Did he wish that?

Maybe. Or rather … a part of him wanted to wish that. He wanted to be able to go back to his old life, to slip away into the wilds as if nothing had changed, and be content as he had been before, if not entirely happy.