I beamed with pride. “I’ve tried to tell you many times; we’re generally a welcoming people.”

He nodded. “It’s hard to believe that on a battlefield. But there were plenty of other times I sh—” He pressed his lips together, his eyes glassy. “Hollis. I said so many things. Terrible things. About you, about Coroa. I called you names. I was so painfully ignorant.”

I shook my head. “I cannot judge you; I’m sorry to say I’ve done the same. But we learn and we change. That’s the only way to make anything better.”

“Then can you find it in yourself to forgive me?” he whispered.

I stared again, lost in those slate-blue eyes. “For a very long time, there has been nothing to forgive between you and me.”

He let out a long, shaky breath, blinking back tears. He surveyed the people in the Great Hall—both his and mine, Isolten and Coroan—and finding himself pleased with what he saw, he smiled and took me up to the thrones. When we sat his face grew serious.

“How are you faring, Hollis? Tell me the truth.”

I swallowed. “Doing well, I think? I have nothing to compare it to. Unlike you, I wasn’t born on the edges of royalty, so I’ve already accidentally broken the law twice just for lack of knowing any better. The holy men held a week-long prayer service for me.”

At that, he chuckled. “Well, if anyone could use prayer . . .”

I swatted at him, smiling because, while he was different, he was also just as I remembered him.

“I’m getting better, but I’m terrified of messing something up. It used to be if I made a mistake, it only hurt me, or maybe four or five people around me. Now? I could hurt so many, Etan. It would break my heart.”

“Then write me,” he said, placing his hand on mine. I thrilled to the touch. “I don’t know everything, but I’ve got plenty of experience. I’ll help you.”

I tilted my head at him. “You have your own country to tend to. One twice the size of mine, might I add. You can’t stop what you’re doing to save me.”

“But I would,” he whispered. “I’d do . . . I’d do so much more if I could.”

I swallowed. “I know. Me, too.” I lowered my voice. “I can’t believe I didn’t think about what this would mean . . . for us.”

He shrugged. “I didn’t, either. In the moment, I was just so pleased for you. To see you become queen.”

“If I’d have realized, I never would have . . .”

“Yes, you would have,” he insisted. “You’d have taken up your crown in a heartbeat, because, despite my first assessment, you are much more than an ornament. You’re brave, possibly to the point of stupidity.” I laughed at that. “And you’re giving. Unflinchingly loyal . . . so many things, Hollis. Things I wish I’d seen sooner.”

I looked away. All the brightness that had surrounded me was fading away. I thought it would be a long-awaited comfort to see Etan again . . . now I wondered how much of it I could take. “I think, for both our sakes, this meeting might need to be the last one in person.”