Carys pressed her lips together to keep from laughing.

“Stop it.”

A chuckle escaped her mouth. “I didn’t say anything.”

“Oh Gods,” Bri groaned. “This is such a mess.”

“It’s nice to see you panicking for once.” Carys grinned as Bri shifted in her saddle. “I mean, I get it. She’s like a pretty version of you.”

“Hey.”

“Oh please, you’re not offended.” Carys huffed, arching her brow. “Would you like me to call you pretty too?”

“No. Gross.”

Carys chortled, her braid swinging behind her as the horses trudged downhill. “You’re normally so even-keeled. I like that she sets you off-balance.”

“You say that like I’d want to be off-balance,” Bri scoffed.

“Sometimes you should.” Carys’s expression hardened and she looked down at her horse’s mane. Bri knew she wasn’t thinking about her and Lina anymore. “Sometimes it’s worth it. Even if it ends badly.”

“I’m sorry.”

“You didn’t bring up Ersan,” Carys said with a sad, half-smile. “I did.”

Bri ducked her head. “I thought for a long time that Aurella was my Fated.”

Carys’s head whipped toward her. It had been many years since she’d uttered her former lover’s name in front of Carys, but once she said it to Lina, she realized she could—that it wouldn’t break her the way she had feared.

“The blue witches said they didn’t feel that bond between us.” Bri hung her head. “They said my only Fate was the one of my birth—to take the crown.”

“That doesn’t mean you won’t have love, Bri,” Carys said softly.

Bri lifted her gaze to meet Carys’s blue eyes. “Then it means that for the both of us.”

“You’d make a good Queen, Bri.” Carys shifted the conversation away from that open wound with a smirk. “But I will make a better one.”

“You’re by far my biggest competition.” Bri flashed a toothy grin. “You didn’t grow up in Wynreach, but you come from high-class fae. You have ancestral ties to the Northern and Southern Courts and good relationships with the rulers of every court. You have family ties to the Eastern humans, and you’re a warrior—smart, cunning, but kind.” Bri shrugged. “I could see them all voting for you.”

“They wouldn’t pick me over a Golden Eagle,” Carys snickered. “Not with that moniker. That name has done half the work for you.”

“Then there’s Tal, of course.” Her gaze darted back down at the name of her twin.

“If charm alone could win the throne, he may be the victor.” Carys chuckled, swatting through a cloud of insects hovering in the damp air. “He’s healed and in Wynreach now, so you know.” Bri nodded stiffly and Carys shook her head. “Gods, you two are so bloody stubborn.”

“I didn’t do anything wrong,” Bri snapped.