Talhan shrugged as if it weren’t a life-changing question. “Depends on them.”

“Just don’t pull a Rua and get married without me,” Bri said with a smirk.

Talhan shook his head, giving her one last hug, and she felt the small tug on her jacket pocket. “Never. You have to be there standing beside me.” He pulled back and looked her in the eyes, giving her a knowing nod as she felt the outline of the object in her pocket. “Bring me mine when it’s time.”

Before Bri could reply, the door to the atrium opened and Lina strode in, her eyes softening at the two of them.

“I will,” Bri whispered, looking Lina up and down. Her eyes were still puffy with tears.

Lina walked right up to Talhan and hugged him. “I’m sorry we couldn’t get to know each other under better circumstances,” she said. “But I look forward to making up for lost time in the future, Talhan Catullus.”

“As do I,” he said with a cheeky smile. Releasing her, he stepped back and looked between the two of them. “Take care of my sister.”

Lina bowed her head. “I will.”

He gave Bri a wink and left. It was bittersweet watching him walk away. She was excited for him, for the future he was heading toward, but was also sad they’d be apart again.

Lina’s arm slipped around Bri’s waist. “When the realm is at peace, we’ll see each other often—Solstices and Equinoxes, weddings and birthdays . . .” She pulled Bri’s hip into her side, molding into her curves like the piece of a puzzle. “We’ll visit so often, we’ll all be sick of each other.”

Bri’s lips tugged at the sides, her arm wrapping around Lina’s shoulders as she guided her to the bench seat and they looked up at Lina’s tree. They sat in the same spot as they had many nights ago, when Lina poured her heart out and grieved her mother, after which they had slept side by side for the first time. This space would forever be sacred to Bri, as would the Queen beside her—a place where they could be real and raw and vulnerable, where they could be brave enough to whisper their truths and shed their tears.

“When I was dying,” Lina whispered, and Bri’s fingers constricted on her arm. The words were like a punch to the gut. “Everything felt muted, the sounds around me jumbled . . . I don’t know if the things you said to me were real or imagined.”

Bri reached into her pocket, the small object burning a hole in her side since Talhan’s hug, and she knew exactly what it would be.

“It was real,” Bri said as she produced a gold ring, a halo of diamonds circling the band. Lina gasped, looking down at it and then back up to Bri.