“Come now, Princess. I was just having a little fun.” He leaned forward, his pale gaze trapping me like a specimen for study in a glass case. “What better way to learn about my fiancée than to push you to the edge and see how you reacted?” His voice turned teasing. “People are their truest selves at their most desperate.”

My face flushed with heat. “My truest self wants to throw you out of this carriage and let the horses trample you.”

He laughed, sprawling back in his seat once more. “Part of you likes this game as much as I do, or you wouldn’t be so quick to play it with me.”

“This isn’t a game!” I snapped. It was so much more than that, not that he cared.

The amusement in Ericen’s face faltered. If I didn’t know better, I’d have thought he looked confused. As if he hadn’t expected me to get genuinely angry.

He held up his hands in mock surrender. “This was meant to be a peace offering. Clearly, I’ve handled it miserably. The last thing I want is for you to hate me. We are, after all, engaged.”

Engaged. The word settled around my shoulders like a scarf, one twist away from strangling me.

“What do you want?” I asked.

He shrugged nonchalantly. “To start over.”

I didn’t know how to respond. This had to be part of his game. Maybe he’d seen he couldn’t break me, so now he wanted to manipulate me. I met his gaze, reading the sincerity behind it. It meant nothing. A day ago, he’d been equally as convincing in his malice.

He let the conversation drop after that, and I was grateful. I didn’t know how to react to this strange attempt at civility. Liar, my instincts screamed. Murderer. Illucian. But my curiosity demanded I see everything. His smile, his wonder at the crows, his guard mocking him for being distraught over the Jin man’s fake death.

It’s all a game to him, I reminded myself. Those moments had been like everything else about him: carefully calculated to elicit a specific response. Whatever reason he had for playing nice—well, his approximation of nice—it was for his own gain and nothing more. Anyone who could shift through emotions like masks couldn’t be trusted.

And soon, I’d be surrounded by an entire kingdom just like him.

* * *

The days passed quickly, during which Ericen and my conversations remained mostly limited to bouts of verbal sparring. He couldn’t seem to resist the urge to dig his claws under my skin, but it was different than before. His words were playful and teasing, not the vicious cuts he’d inflicted in Rhodaire. Part of me reveled in the challenge.