Page 44 of Kiss of Ice

“Well, yes. But they grew to love each other. Father was always a lot calmer when she was around.”And a lot nicer.

The aberrant thought caught her off guard. Ren was rarely critical of her father. But it was true, she realised. Her mother had been the glue that bound the family together. When she’d died, Ren and her father had been cast adrift.

“Anyway,” she continued defensively. “It’s not the same. Usually the couple get to know each other first. See if they’re compatible.”

“And don’t you think you’re compatible with the Emperor? He has many good qualities. He’s strong and brave. And definitely easy on the eye.”

Good with his mouth too. When he wasn’t using it to be a bastard.Ren’s body was still tingling from before. How could he do that to her, she thought? Make her feel so alive, sovital, and then simply walk away?

“I barely know him. And what I do know of him isn’t flattering. Running away from the empire for fifty years, for one thing. It doesn’t paint him in a very good light.”

“Hm.”

“What?” Ren looked at her sharply. “Do you know something about that?”

Ruth hesitated. But after all, the girl was going to marry him. She should know.

“Wiccans are gifted with the ability to see more than what’s in front of them. Some can sense the future. Me, I see snippets of the past. And the Emperor’s past is confusing.”

“Can you see where he was all that time?”

“No. I see where hewasn’t.”

“I don’t understand.”

Ruth tried to put it into words the jinn would understand.

“When I look into someone’s past, I get a sense of their history. It’s not always clear and I never get a full picture but I can feel the space they occupied. The people around them. With the Emperor, the space is empty. As if he was erased.”

“I don’t understand. He doesn’t have a past?”

“Not for those fifty years. Not one I can sense. It’s as if he simply vanished.” The wiccan shrugged. “It’s a mystery. But I’ll tell you what hewasn’tdoing. He wasn’t living the high-life with an endless supply of mead and women.”

Ren was silent for a moment.

“You’re saying something happened to him?” she ventured at last.

“Perhaps. He’s certainly very different to the impetuous prince who went missing all those years ago. He’s damaged, my Lady.”

Was he? It made a strange kind of sense. His mercurial mood changes. His need for control. And what had Amal said? He had nightmares when he slept.

For a brief moment she felt compassion for Kam. But then common sense prevailed and she gave a bitter laugh.

“He doesn’t act damaged. He acts like an arrogant know-it-all who has all the answers and expects everyone to obey him implicitly. He acts like… like…”

“Like an Emperor?”

“Okay, fine. But hedoesn’tknow it all. There are things going on in the empire that are bad and wrong. Things he needs to put right.”

“And that’s why you are such a good match for him, Lady Morenna. Your influence will benefit Nush’aldaam. Andthat, I’m sure, is what your mother would have told you.”

Ren stared at Ruth for a long moment.

“Have you been peeking atmypast?” she asked at last. “Can you see my mother?”

“It’s an occupational hazard, my Lady. Oh look, the palace looks beautiful from this angle, don’t you think?”

They had walked far into the gardens, and from here they could see most of the rear wall of the palace with its mosaic windows and majestic turrets. But what held the eye were the golden inscriptions on the walls. Though it wasn’t yet dusk, they were gleaming ethereally.

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