I nodded, looking back to the cottage as I forced my emotions to settle. “I didn’t have the courage to approach Rorn that evening. And at the next ball, I was seventeen years and still without enough bravery to do anything more than watch him. But before the night ended, he asked me to dance. Before the sun rose, I asked if he was going to kiss me. I can still feel the way my heart had sunk through my legs when he said no. I feared I would cry right there in front of him.” I laughed and sniffed. “Until he smirked and said that I would kiss him.”

Scythe scoffed.

I continued. “A game ensued for months as I made sure to accompany my father to the towers as much as he would allow. Rorn’s teasing with other females would leave me incensed and wondering if the sorceress had been toying with me. But then I decided to tease him back by taking one of his warrior friends with me to the forest fair. The last before the humans became a larger threat than we’d anticipated.”

“Rorn stepped in as soon as we’d reached the starlit dance floor and claimed that he’d been waiting for me. I told him if that were the case, then he would be waiting forever, but before I could finish talking, he kissed me.” I stopped as I remembered those endless minutes—as he’d kissed and kissed and kissed me. “After that, every single thing I’d ever known changed. The moment I reached eighteen years, we were wed.”

Scythe had gone unbearably quiet and still.

“All of the magic, our beliefs that the world laid waiting at our feet, began to unravel when my father died as the war intensified, and Rorn was crowned king when your own father died mere months later. Now I know why.” Anger and grief warred and swam in circles inside my chest. “And now I remember.”

Walking over to Scythe, I lowered to my knees between his and placed my hands upon his thighs. “This sorceress, Silver, she told me that my true love would be a king.” A small laugh escaped me as I saw her meaning so vividly now.

Scythe glared down at me, speaking gently but through his teeth. “You’ve told me that part, wildflower.” He stared over me to my family’s ruined home.

“But when she’d said that, I had immediately looked at Rorn, and as she’d vanished…” I clasped his chin and tilted it down, making sure I had his eye. “She did so with a taunting laugh.”

Scythe’s brows fell heavily, his jaw rigid beneath my touch.

“Don’t you see?” I asked, and his jaw slackened when I stroked it. “I didn’t then, of course, but now I do.” I rose and pressed my nose to his, whispering, “It was you. All along, always you.”