“It is healing—look.” She twisted her shoulder up through the neck opening of the shirt again to show it to him. It was about half healed now, and the other half was all a crusty scab. “I’m sure it will always leave a scar, but I can deal with a scar.”

He bent forward to look closer at it, shaking his head. “I can’t believe it. I just can’t believe it worked. It was a lucky guess.”

“Not lucky! You reasoned it out through the principles of magic as I explained them. Lucky that you were able to actually execute the spell, I suppose, but we had started training you on that, too. But—when did you try?”

“On the ride, on the last night. After the fight with Sorin. He didn’t really knock me out.”

“I should have known. Weak, foolish—”

“I took it as an excuse so neither of you would notice if I lost so much energy and passed out, like we did with the boy. It was toward the middle of the night. The moon was up. The stars were right there to guide me.”

She remembered suddenly the temperature fluctuations, how she’d felt so cold, then so warm, and the feeling in her wound that last night. “I think I remember. I brushed it off, but I did feel something. That’s amazing, Aven. But that means—” She stopped suddenly.

“What? What is it?”

“That means I was free when I gave you over to them.” Her face fell.

“You didn’t know that. Even I didn’t know that. I thought I had failed.”

“But I didn’t even try, I didn’t even attempt to resist. Maybe it all could have been avoided—”

“Don’t think like that. You got me out of there in the end, so what does it matter?” She scowled, unconvinced. “Besides, if you hadn’t done that, then I wouldn’t know that it’s possible to resist the branding. Now that we know, I can teach others.”

She looked up at him quickly, eyes wide. “You’re serious.”

“Well, yes. Why?”

“But I thought… I thought you needed to hide your magic. To be king.”

“There’s been a change of plans.”

“Aven, it’s not worth giving up everything for—”

“Isn’t it?” he said. She only stared into his eyes. “Besides, those bastards were not just keeping you around as pets. They’ve been building an army, a very powerful one, and they’re waiting for the right time. And I think they think this is it. You’re the scouting party. The rest will come. And how are we going to battle them? With swords and spears? With cannon fire?”

She swallowed, probably even more aware than he was of the futility of such weapons against fifty mages, let alone five hundred or even more.

“If Akaria is going to survive, we’re going to have to change. Learn new ways to fight. If the enemy changes, so must we. And that’s going to require magic. I’m going to make sure my father and his advisors see it.”

She just listened to him for a moment in awe. She had often sensed the kingliness about him but had never really seen him in action. She could see the smallest glimpse of it now.

“Well, you’re going to need my help,” she said, trying to shake off her awkward stare. “I’m going to need some sort of gainful occupation in Akaria. I know all their tricks and how Kavanar will approach combat. I know about fighting as a mage, what is taught, even who teaches it—”

He laughed. “I would be honored to have you at my side. Indeed, I think I may need you to prove a point or two to convince skeptics that mages are a real threat. Perhaps more than a point or two. It was already my plan. I hadn’t even considered tackling this problem without you.”

“I am beyond indebted to you for my freedom. It is something I will never be able to repay you for in all of my days. I will gladly serve you in any way I can.”

“Is that so? Because I had a bit of a different role in mind for you than servant.”

“What?” she asked. “Healer? I have the most experience at that, but—”

“Not a healer,” he said, laughing.

“An instructor for the mages? You will need a lot of them to make up for lost—”

“Not that, either.”

“Well, what then?”

“Queen.”

She gasped, involuntarily jumping back a bit. He didn’t let that stop him. He leaned forward, grabbed the back of her neck with one hand, and kissed her.

For a moment again, she was stunned motionless. Fear stirred—did he really know what he was getting into? Would he tire of her or find her inconvenient later? Because she couldn’t really be a good match for someone like him.

Could she?

All the more reason she should kiss him while she could!

And with that, she felt truly free. She reached for him as well, ran her fingers through his hair, down his back, suddenly starving. In the back of her mind, she heard a snippet of gypsy music on the wind and far-off laughter, as she leaned closer into his arms.

It was a long while before their lips parted long enough to speak. Their arms still circled round each other, his hands gently caressing her back, but now she looked into his eyes, hiding a little less of herself as she did. How much truth could she bare before she died of fright?

“I always loved you, you know. Not from first sight or anything, and I don’t know when it started. But once I knew you… And you made sure I knew you, because you just wouldn’t shut up, would you?”

“Silence has never been my strong suit. But if that’s true, you are a very convincing actress. You sure had me fooled.”

“Then why did you just kiss me?”

“Well, why did you save me from certain death, putting your brand-new freedom in peril?”

The words stuck in her throat. “I—it was—the right thing to do.”

He smiled, looking dubious. “That was all?”

“Oh, don’t make me confess what you already know.” She scowled and playfully punched his shoulder. “It killed me to say no to you. I acted like I didn’t want you, because I wanted you so much. You saw what it was like there, at least a taste of it. You felt the brand, the way it worms into you?”

He nodded more solemnly now.

“If you love someone, you’ve got to do everything in your power to keep them away from that. To be the vehicle of your enslavement—that stung worse than a thousand brands in my skin.”