She couldn’t forget how powerless she’d felt that night in the alleyway, when the thieves had stepped from the shadows, and she’d saved herself with an illusion that had barely held. How weak she’d felt before the king. She needed to be able to defend herself. She needed her magic to be better. More.

Yet every night when she returned home ravenous and bone-tired, she wondered why she was doing any of it. Emmett was the apprentice wizard now. She was back home where she was supposed to be. Except she couldn’t help remembering a life she didn’t know how to forget.

CHAPTER 39

Arthur slunk from his father’s council meeting with the beginnings of a headache. He’d promised to take Princess Guinevere for a stroll through the gardens, and he didn’t think he could stomach her company with the pounding in his temples. He needed something to steady his nerves. And soothe his headache.

Still, as he rounded the corner to the old stairwell up to the wizard’s workshop, his heart hurt at the knowledge that Emry wouldn’t be there. That she was gone.

He had fought for hours to make his father see reason. And after the king had grudgingly agreed to spare her life, Arthur had snuck down to the dungeons to tell Emry that it was going to be all right. But he’d found her cell empty, the door wide open.

He only wished he’d gotten the chance to say goodbye. Or to help her escape.

Instead, Lance had been the one to do that. He’d even enlisted some of the guards. Arthur caught them exchanging meaningful looks in the hallway, as though they wanted him to know they’d taken part. As though his approval mattered more to them than the king’s.

Things like that had been happening more and more. Especially after Uther’s drunken outburst at the ball.

A few months ago, Arthur hadn’t been able to imagine what it would be like to become king. Now he was impatient for it. Because leading the kingdom wasn’t about being bowed to and respected. It was about fighting for a future that was more forgiving and more open-minded than the past. And that was a future worth sacrificing for.

At least, that’s what he told himself. But still, sometimes his heart raced, and the walls felt like they were closing in when he thought of how much responsibility he would have to shoulder. And how much he’d have to sacrifice along the way.