Page 111 of Forest of Dreams and Whispers

“You say your body is here? In the tower?”

“It is.”

“And Serena is here too.”

“What of it?”

“What if someone carried her upstairs and, um, made the two of you kiss?”

Hawthorn blinked.

“Look, I know it sounds a little strange, but a tiny kiss in return for saving a kingdom? I think she’d be all right with that. That was the original plan, after all.”

Hawthorn continued to stare. “But who would carry her up there?” he said. “No one can see me. Or you.”

“Ladrien forced me under a sleeping spell too,” she said. “But he only used a powder. That won’t keep me asleep forever. If I get back here—”

Hawthorn chewed his lip. “There’s a small army between the edge of Faerie and here,” he said sceptically. “And you’re maybe a week away—”

“You said yourself I’m practically immortal.”

“Your sheer stubbornness does not translate to actual immortality, you do realise that?”

“Death hasn’t caught me so far.”

The stare increased in intensity. “Indeed, dear Jules, but I imagine he’s trying damn hard.”

“It’ll be fine!” Juliana shrugged, patting his shoulder. “Don’t worry your pretty little head.”

Hawthorn paused, his pursed lips softening into a smirk. “You think my head’s pretty?”

“It houses both the worst and best parts of you.”

“I am both touched and insulted.” He sighed, running a hand through his hair. “This is a terrible plan.”

“Got a better one?”

His jaw tensed. “No.”

Juliana knew it was risky, knew it was foolish. She’d be better off taking the money that was still hopefully on her person and making a go of it in the mortal world.

But she wouldn’t.Couldn’t.

Everything she cared about was here.

She just couldn’t tell anyone that. “I will, of course, be expecting knighthood as previously promised. Maybe a permanent room in the palace. An estate on the banks of the sea.”

Hawthorn stepped close to her. “If you survive this, and you free us, I will give you everything you ask for within my power.”

Juliana buckled. A wild, dangerous vow. “I won’t ask for that much.”

The intensity in Hawthorn’s eyes sharpened, sea-black, flame-blue. “Everything,” he reiterated.

The declaration almost made her buckle under its weight, or maybe it was just thatstareof his. “I need to wake up,” she said, backing away. “How do you think I go about doing that?”

“You could shock yourself out of it, maybe,” he suggested. “Or try falling asleep again?”

“After today, what could possibly shock me?”

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