“The western courtyard,” Felix whispered back. “He’s there now. Alone.”
Mina gripped the window frame to calm herself. The king was alone in the western courtyard—exactly where Mina had first met him. She wasn’t sentimental, but she still thought the coincidence boded well for her. “Thank you, Felix,” she said. “I’ll meet you tonight. Don’t linger here.”
Felix didn’t move, but Mina didn’t have time to waste. “Go!” she said again, and this time he obeyed.
Nicholas was sitting on the fountain ledge when Mina arrived at the western courtyard.
“My lord?” Mina said, forcing a note of surprise in her voice.
He tensed at the intrusion, but when he saw Mina, he managed to smile a little.
“I hope I’m not disturbing you,” she said.
He stood to greet her. “Not at all. When I’m alone, my thoughts overwhelm me.”
“Then I’ll have to push them back for you,” Mina said, her head bowed. That was one of the tricks she’d learned from their walks together, to speak bold words in a demure manner. Pointing your chin downward encouraged a man to lift it up again. Stumbling while walking invited him to give you his arm. Faltering over words made him listen more closely, his eyes drawn to your lips. Weakness was more enticing than any seduction.
“I must bore you with all my sad talk.”
“Not at all. I want to understand. There must be no end of worries for a king, especially without a queen to share them.”
“Even after so many years, I—Mina, are you cold? You’re shivering.” He removed the heavy cloak he was wearing and draped it around her, as she’d hoped he would. Mina kept her head down as he performed his act of gallantry, but as he drew the cloak tight around her neck, she lifted her chin and looked him in the eye. She’d expected him to step back from her, but instead, he remained staring down at her upturned face for another few seconds before letting out a shaky breath and moving away.
That was another trick, to shiver with cold until he noticed. That was the easiest one of all, since she hardly had to fake it.
“I should take you inside, if you’re cold,” Nicholas said.
“No!” Once he escorted her inside, he’d leave, and she didn’t know when she’d have a chance to be alone with him again. “No,” she repeated. “I’ll be just as cold inside, and I needed a change of scenery.”
“A change of scenery, hmm?” he said. “I wouldn’t want you to grow bored of Whitespring.” He fell silent, and then he held out his hand to her. “Come with me. I’ll give you a change of scenery.”
Delighted—but careful not to seem too delighted—Mina took his hand. He led her toward the Hall, but then turned down a corridor she hadn’t visited before, to a large set of closed doors. He opened one enough to let her in.
Mina gave an involuntary gasp when she walked into the room—the throne room, she realized, when she saw two ornate chairs at the opposite end of the room. The cross-vaulted ceilings high above her made her think of a giant rib cage, the click of her shoes on the stone floor echoing against it like a heartbeat. A banner of colorful tiles stretched around the walls; it was a mosaic of the four seasons, a reminder of something long lost. Mina walked in awe until she came to the two grand chairs waiting on a dais at the end of the room. They were identical, carved from the same dark wood.
“That one’s mine,” Nicholas said, pointing to the chair on the left. “The other is for my queen. It has been empty for some time.”
Mina stepped up on the dais. She knew better than to sit in the queen’s throne. Any indication that she wanted to replace his beloved Emilia would offend him. Instead, she sat in the king’s throne and stared out at the room with a lofty expression.
He laughed and gave an exaggerated bow. “You look better there than I do. Not that I use it often. People are always so eager to leave Whitespring that I hardly have time to impress them with my grand throne room. There’s a riddle there, I think: What kind of king rules over such a desolate castle?”
“A stubborn king.”
“Do you think so? What would you have me do instead?”
“Move court. Leave this dreary place behind and move south. You could finally finish the Summer Castle. I grew up near there, and I never understood why it was abandoned.”
“Oh no, I couldn’t do that. This is my home. To move away would be to admit defeat, to give in to Sybil’s curse and let her drive us away.”
“I’ve always thought that the North puts too much importance in Sybil. Maybe all you have to do to break the curse is take down her statue and stop revering her so highly. Or maybe this is no place for a king to rule at all, and she was doing you a favor by trying to drive you away.”
Nicholas laughed, but he stopped when he noticed that Mina wasn’t laughing with him. She’d meant it as a joke, but then she wondered if she might really believe it—maybe not about Nicholas, but about herself.
Nicholas lifted her chin. “What’s the matter?”
The truth came to her lips before she could stop it. “Sometimes I think Whitespring doesn’t want me here. Sometimes—” I think it knows what I am, she continued silently, and it has rejected me.
He took her hands and pulled her up from the throne and down from the dais to stand with him. One hand covering hers, he brought the other to her face, and he blinked in shock when his ungloved hand met her flesh, like he’d expected something else. The soft pads of his fingers brushed over the skin of her cheek, her jaw, her neck. Would he notice she had no pulse gently beating beneath her skin? She wanted to flinch away when his fingers reached her throat, but she couldn’t bring herself to do it, so she kept still, letting him revel in the feel of something softer than air and warmer than memory.
His hand paused at last on her cheek, his thumb close to her lips. “Whitespring wants you here,” he said. “I want you here. Every time you shudder from the cold or wrap yourself more tightly in your furs, it reminds me that somewhere, the sun shines more brightly than it does here. You carry it in your skin.”
It was so easy to believe him. After all, didn’t she currently feel a million suns burning underneath her skin? Didn’t she feel them illuminating her from the inside out? Her heart was a mirror, reflecting the rays through her whole body and out from her eyes, desperate to throw its light over Nicholas as well. Unbidden, the truth struck her: If I could love anyone, it would be him.
“If it’s the sun you long for, why stay? Come to the South, to the hills where I was born, and I’ll show you the sun.”