“Listen,” she whispered, sliding her palm along his cheek, cupping it under his chin. “It doesn’t matter if we cannot marry. We can still be together—when we can—even if I make a political marriage to someone else.”

I cannot believe I’m saying this, Raisa thought. I truly am turning into my mother.

But Han Alister was shaking his head, his face a mask of regret.

“I want to be with you!” Raisa’s voice broke on the words she’d been unable to say back at Marisa Pines. “I don’t want to lose you. Why can’t we have something even if we can’t have it all?”

“Because I won’t share you with anyone else,” Han said. “I won’t be your down-low lover. It’s all or nothing, Your Highness. I won’t settle for less.”

“I have to settle,” Raisa muttered. “Why can’t you?”

He kissed her again, this time long and slow, savoring it. Then came gracefully to his feet.

“You’d better go to bed,” he said, extending a hand to help her up. “You have a big day tomorrow.”

He waited until she reached the top of the staircase, then turned and disappeared into the darkness.

Giving up on meditation, Raisa went to bed, but it was a long time before she slept.

C H A P T E R  T H I R T Y - F I V E

A BAD BARGAIN

The coronation of a Gray Wolf queen was a two-day affair. On the morning after Raisa met with Han in the glass garden, she endured an entire morning of highly ceremonial meetings with her subjects and allies called the Greeting of the Witnesses.

Prior to the splintering of the Seven Realms, it had been customary for representatives from each of the realms to bring tribute to the capital of Fellsmarch to honor the soon-to-be queen.

These days it was just a tradition, though everyone in attendance still brought a small token gift for Raisa.

All morning long, she was acutely conscious of Han standing just behind and to one side of her throne, his face as unreadable as any ceremonial mask. The words that had passed between them the night before hung heavily in the air, distracting her.

Truth be told, even after everything he’d said, she’d been relieved to see he hadn’t departed during the night, seeking a less complicated, less dangerous future.

Raisa wore the ring he’d given her as a coronation gift. She was sure he noticed it, though he said nothing about it.

One foreign visitor Raisa was pleased to see was Dimitri Fenwaeter, lord of the Waterwalkers, whom Raisa had met in the Shivering Fens on her way to Oden’s Ford.

Then, Dimitri had been new to his position, after his father was killed by soldiers from the Fells.