and Falin’s urgings that it wasn’t safe for me in my ears. All the doors to the winter court had closed after I stumbled into the Bloom. No fae could cross in or out of the independent winter territories either. Faerie had completely sealed off winter while the court adjusted to its new king.
Things had been pretty quiet since. No visits from Shadow Princes in the middle of the night. No more lessons from the Mender—though I had been practicing what he’d taught me. I wouldn’t want to be accused of reneging on our bargain. There had also been no reemergence of my basmoarte, so Ryese’s cure had worked.
These were good things. I wasn’t dying anymore. The Winter Queen was no longer trying to ensnare me. And while I hadn’t located any other planeweavers, I had found an unlikely mentor in the Mender, so I could now access at least some of my planeweaving abilities without maiming myself.
But I was anxious. I checked on the door in the Bloom every day. I’d tried to get the door to the folded space holding my castle to take me to the winter court, but it refused. I’d even tried summoning Dugan by whispering into shadows, hoping I could bargain with him and his planebender for a door into winter. No luck.
Who would have guessed that after spending all this time avoiding Faerie, I’d put so much effort into trying to get back inside?
I sighed and set the book down on the grass beside me—I wasn’t even sure of the name of the main character and I’d been on the same page for at least twenty minutes.
“Not a recommended read?” a voice asked behind me.
I jumped to my feet, startling poor PC as he dropped from my lap, and then I whirled around. Falin stood by the garden wall, his thumbs hooked into the pockets of his jeans and his white button-up shirt loose at the collar. His long hair was down, blowing lightly in the wind, but that didn’t hide the thin ice circlet on his brow.
“Nice headband,” I said, forcing myself to walk—not run—toward him.
He gave me a lopsided smile. “Yeah, I can make it bigger.” He lifted his hand and the circlet grew to an elaborate crown with shimmering ice jewels. “Or smaller.” It shrank back down to the thin circlet again. “But I can’t take the damn thing off.”
“Guess Faerie wants everyone to know a king when they see one.” I shrugged. Why was this weird and awkward? He was free of the Winter Queen; shouldn’t that have made things easier?
Yeah, except now he’s king.
“Faerie has a lot of opinions on what everyone should know,” he said. “You’ve been added to the official history of the winter court. Not my doing, by the way. But you now appear carved in ice for all to see on the pillar leading to the court. Actually, you’re in several sections, most notably at my side, blazing with power, as I behead the former queen. I’ve heard rumor that you are in the shadow court’s mural as well, depicted in moving shadows and pulling sickness from Nandin. I haven’t seen it myself. The fae are calling you a kingmaker.”
I winced. That didn’t seem like a particularly good thing. I would rather be less noticed by Faerie, not more. Faerie clearly had a different agenda, and I was definitely on more royals’ radar than ever before.
Not that every Faerie ruler was my enemy.
“So . . . Winter King, huh? That’s quite the promotion. I guess you came to clean out your old rooms here?”
“You kicking me out?”
“What? No. I—” I was spluttering.
Falin leaned down and kissed me. It started gentle, questioning. But when I stepped toward him, he wrapped me in his arms and pulled me close, deepening the kiss. He tasted of snowflakes and new beginnings, and I met the passion in his lips with my own. By the time we broke away we were both breathing a little too heavily and grinning like children.
“You are amazing,” he said, staring into my eyes, and I got that feeling again, like that he saw me. Really saw me.
“Don’t you forget it.”
He laughed, the sound thick and joyful, and I wished that moment could last forever.
Then he ruined it.
“I’ll need to appoint a new head of the FIB.”
I blinked, confused by the sudden topic switch. “You said Nori was your second in command. She seems the obvious choice?” The woman was a thorn in my