Forcing a sharp smile, I met his gaze. “You know everything, don’t you? Who I am, what to say to make me react, how to use my people’s history against me. But if you truly knew everything, you would know better than to piss me off.”

“Are you threatening me, Princess?” His eyes flashed.

I kept my voice low enough that only we could hear. “Do you feel threatened? You’re practically alone in an enemy kingdom filled with people who would line up for the chance to personally disembowel you.”

“If a single person here touched me—”

“Your mother would rain down upon us with the full strength of the Illucian army. Yes, I heard you the first time.”

His jaw clenched, but I kept talking. “Don’t worry. No one’s going to touch a single hair on your pretty little head. But Saints damn me if I keep my mouth shut again. Your mother didn’t demand this engagement just so you could end it because your skin isn’t thick enough.”

He stared at me, eyes narrowed. I waited, my heart thundering in my chest, filling my ears with a roaring. What if I’d been wrong? What if this marriage really was simply a way for Razel to torment us further, and she would happily let it dissolve at her son’s whim?

Finally, the prince smirked. “Not as useless as I thought, it seems.” Tension washed from my shoulders, and he continued, “But I would advise you to remember that I have an army on your border, and your kingdom needs this. We don’t.”

I straightened, keeping a neutral mask. A small victory. He still held the power, but at least I knew, to some extent, Illucia wanted this marriage to happen. “Let’s go.”

I didn’t wait for his approval before urging the group on to the Garien Wing, once home of the storm crows.

As we passed quickly along the light stone buildings, their windows shining with stained glass of amethyst and saffron, cerulean and gold, each color flowing into the next like a sunset, I felt endlessly lighter. Better yet, Ericen remained quiet throughout the ride, even as we crossed into the Cyro Wing, where the memory of fire crows lingered in the scorch marks on buildings and in the street.

I glanced at my burned arm before I could stop myself, and when I lifted my head, Ericen was staring too. My face flushed, but I didn’t look away, waiting for the snide remark. Nothing came.

As we passed beneath a row of pale pink orchid trees, a hummingbird flitted out from behind the tree and zipped over to him, hovering excitedly at eye level. He watched it curiously, trying to track its movements as it jumped around his head, then sped off.