Ericen stood across from the door, leaning against the damp guardrail. Fog floated below, thin enough for me to see the glowing lights of the Colorfalls over the River Ren. Beside him stood Shearen, muttering in a low voice. Whatever he was saying had turned Ericen to stone.

When I stepped onto the platform, Shearen fell silent, glancing at me. He smirked, said something quietly to Ericen, and then brushed past me with a sneer. I glared after him before approaching the prince.

Ericen didn’t look up as I leaned against the wall beside him. His hands were clasped over the edge, his jaw clenched tight.

“Did you have to pick the coldest spot in the castle to hide in?” I wrapped my arms around myself. He didn’t smile, and my own faded. “I brought you something.” I pulled a small orange cake wrapped in a napkin out of my pocket and set it on the wall beside his hands. “Lyren said you had him make them.”

His eyes flickered to the cake, then back to the city below. “Why are you going through with this?”

I knew what he meant. Why had I accepted the marriage proposal? Why had I come to Illucia to marry the son of my kingdom’s greatest enemy?

“I didn’t have much of a choice.”

Ericen finally faced me, the intensity of his stare making me flush. “No one makes you do anything. So why did you?”

I let out a breath, and it blended into the wind. “I’d turned my back on my kingdom long enough. It was time I did something to protect it.”

“And now?”

The question caught me off guard. This time, I wasn’t sure what he meant. Did he think my reason for coming here, for staying, had changed? I found his eyes, searching their blue depths for an answer I wasn’t sure I wanted.

“I’m doing what I have to, Ericen. I—”

He kissed me, a hard, demanding urgency behind the soft warmth of his lips. I went rigid, my heart jolting. Before I could even process what was happening, I’d pulled away. The look on his face made my stomach turn. He stepped back, the realization of his mistake spreading like wildfire across his face.

“I’m sorry,” I breathed. “I—”

“Still? After everything?”

“I—”

“Why did you ask me to come with you to Rhodaire? Why did you listen to me, talk to me, spend time with me? Because you had to?”

My lips parted, an icy bead rising up from my stomach to my throat. Words rose and died, and I lashed out a hand, seizing the wall for support. My fingers struck the orange cake, sending it tumbling off the edge. “No, that’s not…that’s not why—” I shook my head, taking a deep breath. Ericen’s eyes were like a blizzard, boring into me in floods of icy wind.