leave, and almost walked straight into Shauna. Caleb watched, his heart at his feet as Willow swallowed and tried to blink back more tears.
“I have been living your life, in your castle. Its Silvergard you wait for, isn’t it? That’s why you live with your brother. Once my father is dead, you can go back to your true home. I know he doesn’t want it.” She didn’t turn back to look at Caleb when she referred to him, and he closed his eyes in torment.
“I wanted to tell you,” he told her, doing his best not to lose control of who he was. “But it grew more difficult every day.”
“No.” Now she did turn to him, her eyes like smoldering embers. “You could have told me when you had me hauled away from Silvergard. You wanted to make a fool of me, out of the spoiled, pampered brat.”
“You’re wrong.” It was a whisper. He wanted to go to her, to take back the days and tell her the truth from the beginning but sitting on the throne never mattered to him. “I don’t care about the throne. I never did. I care about you, Willow. You’re dearer than life to me.”
“Don’t Caleb. You have taken everything from me, even the last shred of dignity I possessed. I’m sorry my father did this to Predaria, I’ll tell him he must give up the throne. He need not be killed over it because I know now that this is about a crown, not a country.”
“You know in your heart that’s not true,” Shauna told her when her brother remained silent.
Willow said nothing and left them.
When they were alone, Shauna took a step closer to her brother and placed her hand on his shoulder. “She would have found out sooner or later.”
“I know. I should have told her from the beginning.”
“Yes, you should have, but I understand why you didn’t.”
Caleb nodded, then turned and walked off in the opposite direction.
Shauna watched him go. She felt Jonas’ strong hand take hers and she turned to look up at him. They spoke no words, for they both loved Caleb more than either could ever admit. There had to be something Shauna could do. She had spent the most miserable year of her life apart from Jonas. She wasn’t about to let her brother or Willow make the same mistake.
“Jonas,” she said before she left him to go to Willow.
“Yes, love?”
She smiled at him. Did she even have to tell him? He never brought up Ermile or her betrothal. He looked and spoke to her the same way he had before they parted. “I love you, Jonas. You are my…”
“I know, love, and you are mine.”
She rushed into his arms and promised in his ear to never almost marry someone else ever again, and then without another word, ran off to speak to Willow.
Shauna entered Willow’s room and sat on the bed. She was quiet while Baltrasard’s daughter moved back and forth from the wardrobe to her bag, folding the few things she bought neatly before packing them.
She was more than the daughter of the usurper. Willow had become her friend. She’d won Shauna over with the love she felt for Caleb and the willingness to live his kind of life.
“My father called it Silvergarden,” Shauna began.
Willow dropped her head and looked at the folded gown in her hands. “Shauna, please. Haven’t I been made a fool of long enough?”
“Caleb and I were just children when we saw Silvergarden last. I don’t remember much of it, but Caleb remembers a good amount, so does Jonas. They say there were flowers covering every square inch of that back courtyard. Vines, as green as spring ran up and down the walls. My father had built a tiny pond and filled it with fish in the middle of all those blasted flowers. Jonas’ father attested that Caleb and I used to get into much trouble because we would jump into pool and the fish would all die.” Shauna lifted her gaze to Willow’s and smiled. “But Father never stayed angry long. Caleb is very much like him. I’m told my father loved Predaria very much. He loved planting things and watching them grow. He taught Jonas’ father to respect the land, and Henry taught us. My father was a well-loved man, and a Warrior.”
Willow had stopped packing and was listening to her. Even though Shauna could tell by the silent rush of tears spilling over Willow’s cheeks that every