He continued to watch me as I roamed the grounds I’d once called home, unsure how it was possible to feel so much joy and so much despair all at once.

“I was sixteen years when I attended my first jewel ball—when I first saw Rorn. It was there that a ruby-haired sorceress with snakes upon her shoulders and blood in her eyes found me standing alone in the corner of the crowded ballroom.”

“Silver,” Scythe said, and without a trace of uncertainty.

I paused. “You know of her?”

He nodded, fingers steepled beneath his chin. “She lives and works in Sinshell. Berk took me to her after finding me, seeking help to heal my eye.”

“She couldn’t save it, then.”

“She wasn’t sure if it would be possible, but somehow, Berk came to realize it was best I live without it. So they made sure it stayed closed.”

“Berk knows all of who you are?”

“He acts as if he doesn’t, and he’s never asked, but I think he figured it out long ago.” He cocked his head. “Tell me what happened with Silver.”

Still stunned that he knew the same sorceress and that she hailed from Nodoya, it took me a moment to remember what I’d been saying. I couldn’t help but laugh a little as I did. “She told me I looked terribly bored but not to get too comfortable, for I would one day find true love in a king.”

I could still recall the flickering flames within the crystal chandelier and the leafy emerald wreaths and garlands touched by white roses. “Not a moment after she’d disappeared, there he was, a prince scowling at me from across the ballroom.”

I gestured to Scythe. “Much the same as you are now.” His scowl deepened before he eased his features, and I reconsidered what I was about to divulge, my voice lower than I’d intended. “You probably don’t want to hear the rest.”

He pondered that, staring down at his hands between his knees. “I really don’t fucking want to, but I…” He exhaled roughly. “I also do.” Sensing my confusion, he looked up at me beneath his lashes. The sun crested the trees, igniting the jeweled orb of his remaining eye. “I want you. I want all of you. Everything that has made you who you are and who you’re becoming.”

Burning breath sat trapped in my throat.

He shrugged. “So although I loathe it, that asshole is a huge part of that.” He flicked his chin, lips tilting a fraction. “So tell me, wildflower. Tell me the rest.”