the magic and fix the mistake our great-grandfathers made when they begged the fae to create the magical rift between our kingdoms.
If I refuse, Renove and Draegan will both be overrun with darkness and fall into ruin. We will become nothing but a mystery to the rest of the known continents—merely two kingdoms that, one day a little over a hundred years ago, quite suddenly ceased to exist.
But how could I be expected to fall in love with a prince of Draegan after the heartbreak his family inflicted upon my parents and me? They stole my brother, tricked us into thinking he was dead. They’re a vile people, cold and cruel.
And besides all that, my heart is already taken with someone else.
“Amalia?”
I jerk my head toward Rhys. “What?”
“You can step down from the chair now.” The knight’s tone is solemn, but his dark green eyes betray his amusement.
I suddenly realize I’m standing here in nothing but my chemise. It’s long, and plenty decent, but it’s still a chemise.
Lewis offers me his hand, respectfully looking at the floor. In fact, all of Rhys’s knights turn their eyes away. The only one who does not is Rhys himself.
“Get ready to leave,” Rhys instructs his men. “I doubt Amalia will find any more rest today.”
They murmur acknowledgments and filter out. Aeron flashes Rhys a look that I cannot quite decipher, and then he closes the door behind him, giving us privacy.
Rhys shakes his head, giving in to an unexpected smile.
“I know,” I say with a sigh.
Since I left for the Requeamare, I have been a beacon for trouble. I became the bane of the knight’s existence the moment he took it upon himself to become my valiant protector.
“The magic is attracted to you,” he says. “There is no other explanation. Both good and bad, you call to it.”
“It seems it also led you to me, Rhys,” I answer with a smile. “So, which are you? Good or bad?”
A shadow crosses his face. “That has yet to be decided.”
Before I can respond, he starts for the door. “Get dressed,” he says briskly. “We’ll leave as soon as you are ready.”
Once I am alone, I let my head fall back and growl at the ceiling. Despite everything we went through in the forest last night, Rhys seems even more closed off than before.
What exactly did the fairy say when she took him aside? Somehow, someway, I’m going to find out.
I glance into the corner of the room, shivering when I think of the tarantula.
Thankfully, there’s no sign of it. One of Rhys’s men must have taken care of it while I was distracted.
“Are Chasm tarantulas poisonous to dogs?” I ask Cabe, Rhys’s cousin, as we prepare to leave for Saulette. Ember sits next to me, leaning against my legs as I pet her head.
The young man gives my horse an affectionate pat before he hands me her reins. “Yes.”
I look back at Ember, worrying my bottom lip between my teeth. Last night, the wolfdog slept with the horses in the stable, but what if she’d been in the room? Would she have been bitten?
What other dangers wait for us across the Chasm?
“Are there many of them”—I glance around the stable and lower my voice—“in Draegan?”
Cabe frowns, almost as though he’s reluctant to tell me.
“What?” I ask warily.
“There are far worse things in Draegan than Chasm spiders, Your Highness.”
I gulp, looking away. I haven’t told Rhys’s men I intend to cross the rift and rescue Braeton from the clutches of Draegan’s royal family.
For years, the knights have patrolled the border, keeping Renove safe. Now that they’re back home, I’m not sure they’ll be eager to return to the forsaken kingdom.
Frowning, I turn my eyes on Cabe, studying him. “How old are you?”
He looks young. Surely he hasn’t been in Draegan these last few years. He must have joined Rhys’s party when they returned to Renove.
The boy stands a bit straighter, as if the extra height will add years. “I’m sixteen, Your Highness. I’ll be seventeen in a few months.”
Not much younger than Kier then.
I glance at Braith, his older brother. Cabe catches me and gives me a knowing look. “Braith took after our father’s side of the family—large and hairy. I like to think it’s a gift that I’ve never been mistaken for a talking bear.”
Shaking my head at the thought, I laugh.
No matter how he fights it, the young man is not much older than a boy, and with his kind brown eyes and a