Cassidy left the room and paused outside the door. In Dharo, she had made few decisions that had meant much. Here, every decision she made, no matter how small, could ripple through the entire Territory.

Be what you are. That had been Jaenelle’s last bit of advice.

Maybe she wouldn’t accomplish much. Maybe her court would decide among themselves to keep her for a year as a token while they actually ruled. The Darkness knew they were all stronger than she, so there wasn’t anything she could do if they opposed her.

But she had done something of value today, and if she did nothing else while she was here, at least she’d made it possible for two people to love each other openly.

As she headed for the door that opened onto the terrace, Cassidy couldn’t stop smiling.

Gray pretended to rake the softened earth in front of him while he watched Cassie. The sun shone on that braid of fire as she walked across the lawn, and her strides were long and easy. Like the rest of her.

Every morning since the hurting she had come out to sit in the chair he set out for her. They talked about plants while he dug and weeded, reclaiming another piece of the gardens. And she talked to him about Protocol, since he studied a little more of the books each night and asked her questions.

He enjoyed the simple easiness of being around her, and looked forward to the hour or so they could spend together before she had to go inside to do her Queen work.

He hoped she would enjoy the surprise he had hidden in the wheelbarrow.

“Look,” Cassidy said, giving him a wide smile as she held up her hands. “No more bandages.”

Setting the rake aside, Gray scrubbed his hands on his pants to clean off a bit of the dirt before taking careful hold of her hands.

Healed. Not even a small scar to show the damage she had done to her hands.

Healed but not whole. Not yet. Maybe never. Maybe never as strong as before the hurting.

He had learned that painful lesson years ago.

“They’re not strong enough for digging,” Gray said. “Not yet.”

“I won’t know that until I—”

“No,” he said, his voice sharpened by a certainty he couldn’t explain. “They’re not strong enough yet, Cassie. Not for digging in ground that hasn’t been tended for too many years.”

She looked bewildered—and hurt—that he would snap at her like that.

He couldn’t stand to see her hurting, so he added quickly, “But you could plant.”

“Plant?”

Gray stepped to one side so that Cassie could see inside the wheelbarrow.

“Oh,” Cassie said, picking up one seed pot. “What are they?”

No longer sounding hurt. Now she sounded curious and excited—the seedlings of happiness.