I blinked in disbelief. “You want me to marry you for the crown?”

He smiled. “I’m not foolish enough to believe you’d marry me for love. No, I know that honor goes to my brother.” A flicker of sadness crossed his face. “And it should. He is as good and beautiful as you are. But you didn’t just come here to marry a prince. You came here to see the world, didn’t you? I can give that to you, Nor. And in exchange for becoming my queen, I can give your people their freedom.”

“Their freedom.” I eyed the crown skeptically. “How?”

“They can leave Varenia, if they choose. They can trade at the port like everyone else, and receive fair market value. No one will ever again cut off their food or water supply. Varenia will be a sovereign kingdom in its own right.”

My pulse sped up at his words. Varenia, free and independent—it was more than I could have hoped for. “And no more diving for pearls for you?” I asked cautiously.

He shook his head. “I don’t need them anymore.”

“But if you don’t eat the pearls, won’t you grow weaker?” I asked, confused. “I thought you wanted to be physically strong.”

He smiled again, that dark, sinister smile that always made me cold with fear. “I do. And I will be, thanks to you.”

My stomach clenched in horror. My blood. He wanted to keep me as his source of blood. “But what are you going to do with me?” I asked. “Bleed me every day for the rest of my life?”

“Oh no, my dear. I already have everything I need.”

What was he talking about? What had he found in my blood? I looked down at the crown. The blood coral had given me my healing abilities when it entered my bloodstream. Was it possible that those same healing properties could be passed from my blood to Ceren’s? Had it already worked?

I studied him again. There was more color in his cheeks and lips than I remembered, and the hard lines of his face looked less pronounced. As if sensing my appraisal, he raised his chin and pushed his shoulders back. He looked strong, powerful. Ready to conquer the world, as he’d said.

“How?” I breathed.

“The same way I get what I need from the pearls.”

He read the horror and disgust on my face...and smiled.

I didn’t know the limits of my powers, but I knew, based on my encounter with Salandrin, that I was difficult to kill. An ability like that, in the wrong hands, could be disastrous.

And in that moment, it became clear to me that it wasn’t enough to just free Varenia. As long as Ceren lived, he would exploit anyone he could for his own aims. Even banishment wouldn’t be enough to stop someone like him.

“I won’t marry you, Ceren,” I said coldly. “The only threat to our kingdom is you.”

The proud smile faded from his lips. “You would refuse the bargain without hearing the terms?”

I swallowed the lump rising in my throat. “Terms?”

“You have two choices, Nor. Marry me, or die.”

The blood rushed from my head. I should have known he wouldn’t let me refuse him.

But Ceren didn’t realize that I had a third choice. And right now, that choice was the only path I would willingly follow.

I thrust the crown at him and grabbed my knife as fast as I could, slashing out with the blade. I felt it tear through his doublet, but I had no idea if I’d struck flesh. He was reaching for a short sword at his waist, and rather than attempt to fight someone who had a lifetime of training, I ran.

Fortunately he hadn’t locked the door to the cell behind him. A foxfire torch up ahead told me which direction to run. I tried to keep down the panic rising in my throat, but Ceren was already behind me, gaining, and he could see where he was going far better than I could.

“Nor!” he screamed after me. “Where do you think you’ll go? You’re trapped, little bird.”

I continued down the corridor and out of the dungeons into a forked tunnel. I could hear Ceren’s ragged breath behind me. I turned right, praying this fork led to the glowworm cave.

When I felt the air around me shift, I felt a brief jolt of adrenaline. I’d made it. But then my eyes began to adjust, thanks to the small foxfire lanterns lining the walls of the chamber I was in, and I tasted the cloying scent of decay on my tongue. The crypt.

Hundreds of bones were piled here without ceremony, as if the bodies of the dead had merely been flung on top of one another. I glanced over my shoulder and saw Ceren’s silhouette in the entrance. Without thinking, I fled farther into the crypt, to the part reserved for royalty, judging by the marble tables the skeletons had been laid on. A few still wore the remnants of their moldering robes, their hollow eye sockets staring back at me in warning. The edge of the coral knife gleamed in the low light as I held it in front of me, but I couldn’t tell if there was any blood on the red blade.

I turned a corner and ducked down next to the nearest slab, praying Ceren hadn’t seen me. I felt around on the top of the table until my hand met a heavy bone, sticky with cobwebs. A femur, most likely. I pulled it down next to me and waited.

Ceren had slowed to a walk, and I held my breath as he neared the table. When he’d gone two steps past, I stood, and he whirled toward me. “There you are—”

I swung the femur against his face like a club. Instantly, blood spurted from his nose, and his hands flew up to it on instinct.

I dropped the bone and reached for my knife. “Let me go, Ceren,” I pleaded, backing away from him. “You have what you need from me. Just let me go home.”

He growled and lunged at me, exposing his bloodied face, and on instinct I raised my hands to defend myself.

His eyes widened in shock, mirroring mine, as the blood coral blade slipped through his doublet and into the flesh beneath.

I released the hilt and stumbled backward as a howl of anguish erupted from his bloodied mouth. “I’ll kill you for this,” he said, staggering toward me, blood spraying from his lips.

“No,” I said, unable to keep the sadness out of my voice. “You won’t. That blade is made from blood coral, and there is one thing about blood coral you never thought to ask me.”

He looked down at the knife still sticking out of his chest. “And what’s that?” he hissed as he sank to his knees.

“It’s lethal.”

Ceren stared up at me with his silver eyes, dark blood covering the lower half of his pale face. I couldn’t see the blood coming from the wound in his chest against his dark clothing, but I knew that the poison would already be entering his heart.

He opened his mouth and screamed so loud I thought the dead would rise, but then he collapsed at my feet, his hard eyes boring into mine, and exhaled a ragged breath.