“Ever since we were kids, all I ever wanted was to protect you.”
Her lips tingled. She wished he would stop walking so she could see his face. But he didn’t stop, guiding her past rocky outcroppings and drooping, heavy-headed flowers.
“Knowing you were there at the trial, all I could think was, I have to survive this. I’m not going to make her sit there and watch me die.”
“Jacin—”
“But I was stupid to think I could protect you forever. Not from her.”
His tone turned harsh. Winter’s emotions were shredded from the constant flipping of this conversation.
“Jacin, what is this about?”
He took in a shaky breath. They’d come full circle and she could see that Ryu was awake now, prowling behind his bars.
Jacin stopped walking, and Winter tore her gaze from the wolf. She was pinned beneath Jacin’s ice-blue stare. She gulped.
“She wants to kill you, Princess.”
Winter shivered, first with the intensity of his words, and second with their meaning. She supposed such a declaration should have shocked her, but ever since Levana had given her these scars, she had been expecting this.
Her disappointment over Jacin not bringing her here to confess his love was more potent than the knowledge her stepmother wanted her dead.
“What have I done?”
He shook his head, the deep sadness returning. “Nothing that you could help. The people love you so much. Levana’s just realized how much. She thinks you could be a threat to her crown.”
“But I could never be queen,” she said. “The bloodline. The people would never—”
“I know.” His expression was sympathetic. “But it doesn’t matter.”
She drew back, hearing his words again. Spoken with such certainty. She wants to kill you, Princess.
“She told you this?”
A sharp, single nod.
Bright spots flickered in her vision. She stepped backward, grasping the rail of Ryu’s enclosure. Behind her, she heard a growl, followed by Ryu’s nose against her fingers. She hadn’t realized he was there.
“She asked you to do it.”
His jaw clenched. Guiltily, he glanced at the wolf. “I’m so sorry, Princess.”
When the world stopped spinning, she dared to look up at the camera over his shoulder. She rarely paid the cameras much attention, but now she wondered if her stepmother was watching, waiting to see her stepdaughter murdered so she could protect her throne from an imaginary threat.
“Why would she do that to you?”
He laughed, like someone had stabbed him in the chest and he had no other choice but to find it amusing. “To me? Really?”
She forced herself to stand tall. Recalling her breathless anticipation of this meeting, she thought of what a naïve, silly girl she’d been.
“Yes,” she said, firmly. “How could she be so cruel, to ask you, of all people?”
His face softened. “You’re right. It’s torture.”
Tears started to mist her eyes. “She threatened someone, didn’t she? She’s going to have someone killed if you don’t do this.”
He didn’t respond.
She sniffed, blinking the tears away. He didn’t have to tell her. It didn’t really matter who it was. “It’s selfish of me, but I’m glad it’s you, Jacin.” Her voice shook. “I know you’ll make it quick.”
She tried to imagine it. Would he use his knife? A gun? She had no idea what was the fastest way to die. She didn’t want to know.
Jacin would have had to ask these same questions. All the night before. All that day. He must have been planning how to do it, dreading this meeting as much as she’d been yearning for it.
Her heart broke for him.
Behind her, Ryu started to growl.
“Winter…”
It had been so long since he’d called her by her name. Always Princess. Always Highness.
Her lip quivered, but she refused to cry. She wouldn’t do that to him.
Jacin’s fingers curled around his knife.
It was torture. Jacin looked more afraid than when he’d stood on trial. More pained now than when his torso had been stripped raw from the lashings.
This was the last time she would ever see him.
This was her last moment. Her last breath.
Suddenly, all of the politics and all of the games stopped mattering. Suddenly, she felt daring.
“Jacin,” she said, with a shaky smile. “You must know. I cannot remember a time when I didn’t love you. I don’t think such a time ever existed.”
His eyes filled with a thousand emotions. But before he could say whatever he would say, before he could kill her, Winter grabbed the front of his shirt with both hands and kissed him.
He thawed much quicker than she’d expected. Almost instantly, like he’d been waiting for this moment, he grabbed her hips and pulled her against him with a possessiveness that overwhelmed her. His lips were desperate and starved as he leaned into the kiss, pressing her against the rail. She gasped, and he deepened the kiss, threading one hand into the hair at the nape of her neck.
Her head swam, muddled with heat and a lifetime of desire.
Jacin’s other hand abandoned her hip. She heard the ring of steel as the knife was pulled from its scabbard. Winter shuddered and kissed him harder, filling it with every fantasy she’d ever had.
Jacin’s hand slipped out of her hair. His arm encircled her. He held her against him like they couldn’t get close enough. Like he meant to absorb her body into his.
Releasing his shirt, Winter found his neck, his jaw. She felt the tips of his hair on her thumbs. He made a noise and she couldn’t tell if it was desire or pain or regret or a mix of everything. His arm tensed against her back. His weight shifted as he raised the knife.