Page 73 of Pretense

“Very well.” Edmund relaxed as he made the decision. “Be ready to leave in an hour.”

Jalissa nodded as if unfazed by the time. It was already just past midnight, and they would be leaving in the early hours of the morning. He didn’t want the spy’s trail to go cold.

As Jalissa moved past him, she sent him one last smile, this one a bit more impertinent than he normally saw from her. “When you marry me, it will be because it is our choice, not because we were forced into marriage by a scandal.”

Wait. Had he heard that right?

He caught her arm in a gentle grip. “You said when, not if.”

Her smile didn’t dim, but she peeked up at him. “I was going to tell you earlier tonight. I no longer want our courtship to be fake. If you are all right with that.”

His heart beat harder, and he longed to pull her into his arms and hold her.

But they should talk about heart bonds and if Jalissa wanted to give up hundreds of years of her life for him. There were complications with their respective crowns and the scandals that could arise.

Yet they didn’t have the time for all of that now.

He let his fingers trail down her arm until he briefly squeezed her hand before letting go. “Jalissa, my amirah, of course I want this to be real. But are you sure? Especially after I just told you about my doomsday plan?”

Jalissa gave a small flinch and glanced away from him. “I do not like it, but I understand. Your brother is correct that Weylind likely had a similar plan. Besides, you did not know me. You did not know my family. You were simply doing your job and protecting your kingdom.”

It took all his self-control not to wince.

He had known Jalissa far too well when he’d made that plan. There was a reason he had argued for assassinations of only the male members, telling himself that he was at least protecting Jalissa, ignoring the twinge that told him that killing her family would still hurt her deeply.

Perhaps this was the other reason he had to take Jalissa along. Over the past week, he had shown Jalissa another layer of himself. She had caught a glimpse of Edmund the spy and not just Edmund the prince.

But this was his chance to peel back the final layer to reveal his last secret, lay his heart at Jalissa’s feet, and see if she would still accept him once she knew everything he had done.

Chapter Twenty-Three

Farrendel lay there, trying to figure out what had awakened him.

A person had crossed the boundary of his magical shield. An elf, based on the brush of elven magic. Likely not a threat, but it was never a good thing when someone approached his room in the middle of the night.

After easing out of bed without waking Essie, he grabbed his swords and quickly buckled them on over his loose shirt and trousers. He padded down the stairs to the main room, then tiptoed to the front window.

A guard Farrendel recognized hurried across the branch toward Farrendel and Essie’s rooms.

Farrendel opened the door before the guard even had a chance to knock and stepped onto the porch, shutting the door behind him.

The guard jumped, then bowed. “Amir. Weylind Daresheni requested that I wake you, the amirah, and the amirah’s mother and tell all of you to pack your bags. He will meet you at your workshop shortly.”

“Did he say why?” Farrendel clamped down on his magic to keep it from flaring out of his control.

The guard shook his head. “No, amir.”

Something bad was going down. Farrendel forced himself to take a deep breath, even as his chest squeezed tight.

The guard bowed one more time, then spun on his heel, placing his back to the door in a guard position.

Farrendel shut the door, bracing himself against it for a moment. Then, he ran back the way he had come, the steps cool beneath his bare feet.

Inside their room, Essie still slept, curled in a mound of blankets and snoring softly.

Farrendel gently shook her shoulder. “Essie, love.”

She mumbled, groaning. When he shook her again, she lifted her head and blinked at him, her expression still hazy with sleep.

---