She started to let go, but he wasn’t ready. He pulled her toward him, their bodies nested against the cold. “Do you think you’ll ever stop running?”
She tensed against him. “I don’t know how.”
Kell’s free hand drifted up her bare arm to the nape of her neck. He tipped his head and rested his forehead against hers.
“You could just …” he whispered, “stay.”
“Or you could go,” she countered, “with me.”
The words were a breath of fog against his lips, and Kell found himself leaning in to her warmth, her words.
“Lila,” he said, the name aching in his chest.
He wanted to kiss her.
But she kissed him first.
The last time—the only time—it had been nothing but a ghost of lips against his, there and gone, so little to it, a kiss stolen for luck.
This was different.
They crashed into each other as if propelled by gravity, and he didn’t know which of them was the object and which the earth, only that they were colliding. This kiss was Lila pressed into a single gesture. Her brazen pride and her stubborn resolve, her recklessness and her daring and her hunger for freedom. It was all those things, and it took Kell’s breath away. Knocked the air from his lungs. Her mouth pressed hard against his, and her fingers wove through his hair as his sank down her spine, tangling in the intricate folds of her dress.
She forced him back against the railing, and he gasped, the shock of icy stone mixing with the heat of her body against him. He could feel her heart racing, feel the energy crackling through her, through him. They turned, caught up in another dance, and then he had her up against the frost-laced wall. Her breath hitched, and her nails dug into his skull. She sank her teeth into his bottom lip, drawing blood, and gave a wicked laugh, and still he kissed her. Not out of desperation or hope or for luck, but simply because he wanted to. Saints, he wanted to. He kissed her until the cold night fell away and his whole body sang with heat. He kissed her until the fire burned up the panic and the anger and the weight in his chest, until he could breathe again, and until they were both breathless.
And when they broke free, he could feel her smile on his lips.
“I’m glad you came back,” he whispered.
“Me, too,” she said. And then she looked him in the eyes, and added, “But I’m not dropping out of the tournament.”
The moment cracked. Shattered. Her smile was fixed and sharp, and the warmth was gone.
“Lila—”
“Kell,” she mimicked, pulling free.
“There are consequences to this game.”
“I can handle them.”
“You’re not listening,” he said, exasperated.
“No,” she snapped. “You’re not.” She licked the blood from her lips. “I don’t need saving.”
“Lila,” he started, but she was already out of reach.
“Have a little faith,” she said as she opened the door. “I’ll be fine.”
Kell watched her go, hoping she was right.
II
Ojka crouched on the palace patio, tucked into the shadow where the balcony met the wall, her hood up to hide her crimson hair. Inside this strange river castle, they appeared to be having some kind of celebration. Light danced across the stones, and music seeped through the doors. The cold air bit at Ojka’s skin, but she didn’t mind. She was used to cold—real cold—and the winter in this London was gentle by comparison.
Beyond the frosted glass, men and women ate and drank, laughed and spun around an ornate dance floor. None of them had markings. None of them had scars. All across the hall, magic was being used in petty ways, to light braziers and sculpt ice statues, to enchant instruments and entertain guests.
Ojka hissed, disgusted by the waste of power. A fresh language rune burned against her wrist, but she didn’t need to speak this tongue to know how much they took for granted. Squandering life while her people starved in a barren world.
Before Holland, she reminded herself. Things were changing now; the world was mending, flourishing, but would it ever look like this? Months ago it would have been impossible to imagine. Now it was simply difficult. Hers was a world being slowly roused by magic. This was a world long graced.
Could a polished rock ever truly resemble a jewel?
She had the sudden, pressing urge to set fire to something.
Ojka, came a gentle chiding voice in her head, soft and teasing as a lover’s whisper. She brought her fingers to her eye, the knot in the tether between her and her king. Her king, who could hear her thoughts, feel her desires—could he feel them all?—as if they were one.
I would not do it, Your Highness, she thought. Not unless it pleased you. Then I would do anything.
She felt the line between them slacken as the king drifted back into his own mind. Ojka turned her attention back to the ball.
And then she saw him.
Tall and thin, dressed in black, circling the floor with a pretty girl done up in green. Beneath a circlet of silver and wood, the girl’s hair was fair, but Kell’s was red. Not as red as Ojka’s, no, but the copper still caught the light. One of his eyes was pale, the other as black as hers, as Holland’s.
But he was nothing like her king. Her king was beautiful and powerful and perfect. This Kell was nothing but a skinny boy.
And yet, she knew him at first sight, not only because Holland knew him, but because he shone to her like a flame in the dark. Magic radiated like heat off the edges of his form, and when his dark eye drifted lazily across the bank of windows, past shadow and snow and Ojka, she felt the gaze. It rippled through her, and she braced herself, sure he would see her, feel her, but he didn’t even notice. She wondered if the glass was mirrored instead of clear, so that everyone inside saw only themselves. Smiles reflecting back again and again while outside, the darkness waited, held at bay.