“Should we go after him?” I asked, but Talin was looking at my neck.

“I’m not worried about him right now. You’re injured.”

I winced as I touched the wound. “It’s nothing. Are you hurt?”

“Nothing? You’re bleeding, Nor.”

The guards stumbled into the clearing just as Ebb and Grig arrived from the other side. “We heard screams,” Grig said, hurrying toward us. “I was afraid for Mistress Ebb’s safety, or we would have come faster.”

“And where were you?” Talin shouted at the guards. “It’s your job to protect Zadie.”

“Apologies, Your Highness,” one of them said. “We got lost trying to find you.”

“Lost? How far could you possibly have gone?”

I shared his incredulity. Normally Ceren’s guards were so close I couldn’t move without stepping on their toes.

“Is that blood?” the other asked, pointing to my neck.

“Of course it’s blood, you imbecile,” Talin growled. “Bring me my water skin and a bandage from my saddlebag.”

When the guard handed the items to Talin, he brushed my hair away from my neck gently. “I’m sorry. This is going to sting.”

I smiled and placed my hand on his. “I’m fine. Really.”

“You don’t have to be brave all the time. Please, hold still.”

I knew what he would see when he rinsed the blood off my neck, but he was already tipping the water skin. I watched his expression shift like sand under water, from concern, to surprise, to confusion.

“There’s no wound,” he said, running his fingers over the smooth skin.

“I told you it was nothing. It must have been the attacker’s blood,” I said, my eyes darting to Ceren’s guards.

“On your neck?”

I stepped away from him, dabbing my neck with my sleeve. “Varenians heal quickly,” I murmured. “You must have known that from your mother.”

“She healed quickly, yes, but not within a few minutes,” he insisted quietly. “I’ve never seen anything like this before.”

I could feel the guards pressing in behind us.

“It was just a nick.”

Talin waved the guards back. “Get on your horses and patrol the area. We’ll leave in a minute.”

“We take orders from Prince Ceren,” one of the guards said gruffly.

Talin’s eyebrows shot up. “You mean your orders to keep Zadie safe? Should I tell my brother how well you followed that command?” Talin crossed his arms and the guards finally turned away, grumbling to each other as they went. “Grig, take Ebb to the road,” Talin said gently. “We’ll be right there.”

“Don’t be angry,” I said to Talin when the others were gone. I shivered as his fingers brushed the sensitive skin of my neck.

“I’m not angry. I’m astonished.”

“I wish I could explain it. It’s just the way I am.”

He thought for a moment before running his fingers along my jawline and up to my cheek. “If you heal so easily, how do you have your scar?”

The warmth that had flooded my veins at his touch evaporated. “The scar was from a far worse incident. I was lucky to survive at all.”

His finger still lingered on the sensitive spot on my cheekbone. No one had ever touched it like this before, with reverence instead of concern. “Will you tell me about it?”

“About the incident?”

“Yes. I want to know more about you.”

I twisted the long braid Ebb had plaited for me this morning over my shoulder. I wanted Talin to know more about me, too, but I’d never told anyone about the incident. Everyone in Varenia already knew. Just thinking about it brought me right back to those awful moments when I’d believed with utter certainty that I was going to die.

“It’s all right,” he said, sensing my hesitation. He traced a path across my cheek and back down to my jaw, where he hooked one finger under my chin and lifted my head until our eyes met. And as scared as I was, I didn’t break away from his gaze. I wanted to imprint this moment in my mind forever, because I was afraid it would never happen again. He lowered his face to mine, his lips brushing so softly against my cheekbone, I hardly felt it.

“What are you doing?” I whispered.

“I’ve been wanting to do that for ages,” he murmured against my skin. “It’s like a tiny star, marking you as something special for anyone too senseless not to know it.”

I couldn’t believe that anyone would want to kiss my scar. I had imagined that if I left Varenia, I might find someone who could overlook it, but I hadn’t dared to believe someone would ever find it special. “It’s from a blood coral,” I told him.

He leaned away from me. “What?”

“The scar. It’s from a blood coral. I hit it when I was saving my sister from drowning. I nearly died from the cut. But somehow I survived, and ever since then I’ve been able to heal almost instantly.” I gripped his hand, squeezing with urgency. “You can’t tell your brother about this. If he finds out—”

“I would never tell.” He tucked a loose strand of hair behind my ear. “How old were you?”

My grip softened. Talin’s composure had a way of calming me. “Ten. We were diving for pearls. Our father never said it outright, and our mother wouldn’t have admitted it, since it went against every rule she’d made for us, but we knew it was our responsibility to collect oysters. Father spent most of his time farther out to sea, hunting for bigger fish. We didn’t have brothers who could dive for us, and Mother—whose own mother was also obsessed with the ceremony, and who had plenty of sons to do the physical labor—never learned to dive. One day, Zadie and I found a massive oyster close to a blood coral. We knew how dangerous they were, of course, but the amount of money a pearl from an oyster like that could bring to our family...”

His hand closed on my shoulder. “I’m so sorry. I had no idea how dire things were in Varenia.”

I shook my head. How could he have known? “Zadie and I went for the oyster at the same time, and her skirts got caught on a fishing hook. I freed her, but she was running out of air, and she accidentally pushed me into the blood coral.”

He touched my scar again, and this time it didn’t feel so strange. “You love Zadie so much. How could anyone think you would want to hurt her?”

I stared at him for a moment, my eyes welling with tears. How was it that someone I’d only known a few weeks saw me so much more clearly than the people I’d spent my entire life with? I’d always wanted someone to see me for me. What if, against all odds, I had finally found that person?