“What are you saying? You don’t really want to stay here and marry—”
“I’m saying that we’re getting out of here. I’m saying that we can still go to Allu. It’s not some hopeless, distant dream. We can be together, Luna, but they have to believe we want to be here. They have to believe we’re content, and when they don’t suspect it, we escape.”
The longest pause followed. Bleakness crossed her face. “What of Relhok? My kingdom? If neither one of us marries into the royal family of Lagonia, then we leave Relhok to Cullan. I don’t know if I can do that. I know weeks ago I thought I could.” She gave a slight shrug. “I thought the dream of Allu was the only thing that mattered, but now . . .”
Frustration bubbled up inside me. How much of herself would she give? How much would she sacrifice? She was still willing to give up everything for a country she didn’t even know.
I refused to let her do that.
I pressed on, desperate to reach her. “Why are you so tied to Relhok? You have no memory of it.” I shook my head. She bit her lip, clearly conflicted. “Do you so badly want to be a queen that you would marry a stranger?”
“It’s not that,” she shot back quickly, hot color flooding her face. “I’m not that shallow or power hungry. That’s never what I wanted. If you claim to know me, you should know that much!”
“Then what is it? Tell me, Luna. Because I cannot stay here and watch you marry him.”
The moisture in her eyes pooled and spilled over, dripping down those pale freckled cheeks. I swiped at the tears with my thumbs. When they didn’t stop, I leaned in and pressed my mouth over each cheek, kissing the salty tracks with far more restraint than I felt. The need to grab her and crush her to me, pull her inside myself, was overwhelming. I’d never felt this before.
“My father knows you’re alive,” I whispered hoarsely, pausing to let that sink in, hoping she fully understood what I was saying. “Have you considered what that means?”
She took a sip of air. Her mouth was so close, damp from tears and that sweet dew that clung to her. “It means the kill order on girls is lifted. That’s the only thing that matters.”
“You know what I’m saying.” My thumbs pressed a fraction deeper, as though I could will her to acknowledge it to me. “There is no way he would let you live now. He’ll be sending someone. An assassin, soldiers, an entire army. You’re a threat to his crown. He cannot let your claim go uncontested. We cannot stay here. Even if we wanted to, it’s not possible.”
“You make it sound so easy.” She rubbed at the center of her forehead as though she was feeling the beginnings of a headache. I felt a twinge of guilt. She had just survived an encounter with dwellers, and here I was hounding her, demanding she agree to put her life in my hands and escape this place with me. But if she didn’t agree, she’d likely die here. Nowhere near Tebald was safe. He was a ruthless tyrant. And my father would eventually come for her. Even dwellers wouldn’t stop him.
“We will need a strategy, but we can break out of here.”
She fell to silence again. She was thinking, stewing. She took a shuddery breath and finally spoke. “I have to confess something.”
Unease gripped my chest. “What?”
“I never intended to stay here.” She stopped and took a deep breath. “Well, I never considered it for longer than a moment or two.”
My chest loosened. “Oh. Then why are we arguing—”
“I was planning to escape . . . except without you.”
Without you.
I stared at her for a moment, still holding her face even as she uttered those words that stabbed my heart. She was going to escape without me. Again. Damn it all. I suppose I should be used to her pushing me away at this point, but it would never feel good. I would never be immune to it.
A bleak kind of fury burned through me. I dropped my hands from her face and all that velvet skin, practically flinging her from me.
“Again?” I accused.
She nodded. “I knew if you stayed and married the princess, Relhok would be assured some kind of ruler that was just and good.”
“You think that would be assured? Ha! Marrying Maris doesn’t change the fact that my father still sits on the throne.”
“But not forever,” she argued.
I shook my head. “Assuming my bastard father dies tomorrow, Tebald would then reign over both kingdoms. After him, it would be his son. And as far as I can tell, Chasan is every bit as ruthless as his sire.”
She paled. Clearly, she hadn’t thought this through enough. Doubt crossed her expressive face. “I just thought that with you here your influence would do some good.” Her voice faded. Her chin shot up, fire in her cheeks. “You’re right. I was wrong.”
The tension in my shoulders ebbed. Finally, she was starting to see things my way.
Then, she added, “But Cullan still has to be stopped.”