Page 44 of Betraying Korth

As Korth drew nearer to me, I frantically tried to make up my mind. I nearly managed to pull away, but Korth gently loosened the knot securing my mask so it fell to the ground, his fingers hooking around the back of my head, and my willpower didn’t extend as far as resisting.

“Dahlia,” he whispered, drawing me in just as he had during my dream. “I love you.”

The use of my name was my undoing.

“I love you too…Korth,” I whispered, so close that the tips of our noses touched and we shared the air between our mouths. How I wished I could be the noble and honorable princess that he deserved. If only I could find a way that would aid the rebellion in righting the wrongs in Ebora without Korth’s heart being caught in the middle. Until I was discovered and convicted, was it so bad to lose myself in a tiny moment of happiness?

“May I—” Korth rasped.

“Please do.”

When Korth kissed me the first time, he proceeded cautiously, barely brushing his lips against mine as his hand grazed my waist. The brief sensation broke a dam in my chest I hadn’t known was there, releasing a flood of emotions that had a mind of their own. I clutched at Korth’s shirt, kissing him back far more intensely than he had done to me, breathing in his scent and wishing he would hold me so close that all air vanished from my lungs.

He exhaled sharply through his nose but began returning my kisses with equal fervor as his hands explored my back and burrowed through my hair. Kissing him suddenly seemed more important than breathing. There was nothing more important than staying locked in our embrace. For a few minutes, I was able to forget my loyalties and lose myself to Korth, ignoring every other demand, every other thought. So this was what it felt like to be loved and to love someone back.

Korth pulled back first, his eyes filled with a wild happiness that was foreign to his face, but that suited him. “I’m so lucky to have you, Odette.”

Shame slithered back in with the use of Odette’s name, nudging guilt to eat away at my heart. I was already an imposter who had taken advantage of Korth’s position in so many ways. Did I really have to knowingly break his heart as well?

But what if…I searched for any glimmer of hope that would allow me to retain the ecstasy from a few moments before. What if the rebellion was never discovered? I would need to stay married to Korth forever. No, I wouldgetto stay married to him.

My guilty feelings intensified as I remembered why I had futilely tried to resist falling for Korth in the first place. It had been so easy to maintain my protective emotional shield with Princess Odette, but with Korth… why did he have to make things so difficult? I tried to imagine what would happen once he realized the extent of my deception. Him and his rule-loving self… He would hate me forever. The thought went through me like a knife.

I couldn’t bear the thought of Korth hating me, but was one person really worth sacrificing my entire country’s future for? No matter what, both Korth and I would suffer because of my betrayal. But if I had never taken this mission in the first place, my people would forever suffer with neglectful, selfish rulers. Surely, the good of the many outweighed any damage. As much as I wanted to be, I couldn’t be selfish.

I pulled my thoughts back to the moment at hand. “Isn’t it fun not having a chaperone?” My fingers followed the seams on his sleeves all the way up to his shoulders.

“I can certainly see why it’s required for us to have one until we’re married.” He grazed my lips again, the music from the festival still flowing around us. “This is a little too much fun.”

“I propose that for every bridge we stand on together, we have to kiss at the top.”

Korth cupped the back of my head and inclined his head toward me. “That sounds like an excellent tradition. Life can’t get better than that.”

As I parted my lips, a slight movement over his shoulder caught my eye. Someone or something had ducked out of sight behind a bush at the water’s edge. Recalling our attacker from before, I shrank against Korth.

“What?” Korth asked, turning to follow my gaze.

“I thought I saw…” From the bushes, I spotted a crouched figure scurrying away whose profile was all too familiar. It was just Curdy again. I sighed in relief. He was probably just checking on me. “It was nothing. Just a couple trying to sneak off.”

“How scandalous.”

“So scandalous,” I told him, leaning back against him and reveling in our lack of a chaperone. “What rule-breakers.”

Korth and I secured our masks back in place and leaned against the railing that ran around the gazebo’s edge atop the bridge, gazing down at the pond below.

“There’s a tradition—” Korth began.

“I thought we just came up with one.”

“There’s an old tradition that goes back more than a hundred years about this bridge in particular,” Korth amended. “Couples often come here to exchange vows.”

“You mean they get married here?”

“No, they exchange vows. Look.” He indicated a table that had small strips of paper secured under a rock. “They write down what they promise to always give the other and drop them into the vase.” A large, open-mouthed vase was at the edge of the gazebo.

“What sort of promises?”

“That they will always care for the other, always be honest with each other, that sort of thing.”

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