Page 12 of Shrine of Fire

“I agreed to marry you, without talking to you first.” I shrugged. “You might be in love with someone else, maybe more than one person. You might have had other plans.”

“Oh.” Stefan looked away. “It wouldn’t have mattered if I was in love with anyone else. I was always going to marry who my father arranged for me.”

“You’re not stuck with me.” I tried to smile. “If there’s someone else, we can bring you two together.”

“You want an open marriage?” Confusion was writ large all over his face, and he shifted his position to face me directly.

“I mean…” I sighed. “If you don’t want to get married, I won’t force you. We’ll come up with someone to appease the King and then you can be free to live your life.”

He looked at me, his face a pleasant mask. I felt like I’d said something wrong, but I didn’t know what. Then he nodded. “Of course. You should be free to marry who you wish.”

I shook my head. “It’s not about me. I showed up and told you that you were going to marry me. I’m sure your lovers were not so happy with that.”

“There is no one else. Before Nik abdicated from his position as Crown Prince, I thought I would be the advisor to the throne. The guy doing the paperwork.” Stefan watched my face like he was looking for a clue to my inner thoughts.

He didn’t know me well enough to know I didn’t have an ulterior motive. “And then he showed up bonded to a Shrine Omega.”

Stefan smiled. “Deeply in love and finally able to break away from our father. So now I’m the Crown Prince.”

“You don’t have to rule if you don’t want to.” I put my hand on his arm. “It’s a lot of responsibility, and the king…”

Stefan was already shaking his head. “I won’t leave the country solely in my father’s hands. I’ll rule.”

Stefan had an excellent face for keeping his thoughts to himself, and I was sure that was an advantage at court. He seemed fine. Although my instincts told me that something was off, his face and body language betrayed nothing but his desire to take care of his country.

Something was still off.

“If you wish to dissolve our arrangement, I will of course let you. We haven’t formally become engaged.”

“I’m worried that I’m butting into your personal life. We hardly know each other and…” I was doing this all wrong. He thought I didn’t want him.

But I did. He’d shown himself to be funny when I first met him and then he’d helped us acquire the additional metal we’d needed to fix the Shrines, despite the Ember King trying to throw us out.

I didn’t know what my feelings were, but I was already sure that I didn’t want to only see him occasionally. I looked around, trying to work out how to tell him what I was feeling. A soft breeze blew around us, rustling the glossy leaves on the small trees. It was peaceful here.

“What if…” Stefan glanced at me, before he continued, “What if we remain engaged for a time? It will give you the chance to do your work with the Shrines. It will also distract my father from some of his ire at Nik abdicating the throne.”

“Does he hurt you?” I grabbed his hand. “He’s not allowed to hurt you. I don’t care who he is.”

“Not since we were teens,” Stefan grimaced, his soft cotton and lemon scent getting stronger. “He has other ways of being cruel. That’s one of the reasons I’m trying to change things now that I’m Crown Prince.”

“I can help.” I looked at him a little shyly, then let go of his hand, even though I would have preferred to snuggle up against him. He soothed me more than I should have expected from a near stranger. “I’m good with politics. If there’s any plans you’re putting into place to minimize his power and the damage he can inflict that we can help with, let me know.”

“Thank you,” Stefan said. He’d dropped the smooth mask from earlier, and I was looking at a guy just trying to do his best.

“Okay.” I swallowed hard. “So, we’ve got that sorted out. And, in the meantime, we will observe a long engagement.”

“If you’re sure you’re okay with that.” He watched me carefully. He was so certain that I would refuse him, that I would tell him no.

I looked him in the eyes and put all the conviction into my voice that I could muster. “I am.”

“My father will formally announce our engagement soon.” Stefan eyed me like this would be the last straw. “I don’t know if you have any idea about the royal engagement and marriage protocols on Ember Island…”

“Oh. That’s remiss of me. I haven’t read up on the customs.” My stomach flipped over, and I couldn’t stop my eyes from widening. Hopefully their practices weren’t too barbaric.

“The King will announce the Royal Engagement.” Stefan’s expression was pleasantly blank. “We will be expected to be at the ball announcing the engagement, and the King will inform us later of which beta royals we will be visiting.”

“Beta royals?”

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