Page 79 of Crown Prince's Mate

Titus laughs. “One of the students… what was his name again?”

“Talon,” says Gallien.

“Yeah, Talon. Couldn’t hold his alcohol. He showed up to training still drunk. The entire class had to run laps until wecollapsed, in the hot sun. You try doing a forty-kilometer run hungover. We could have used some of that clear root.”

“Oh, the drill instructor was sadistic. We went to get water, dragging ourselves in the sand, and he spiked it with the moonshine. I didn’t drink for twenty years after that.” Gallien sighs and lifts his glass, swirling the red liquid. “Let me guess, tonight’s going to be brutal.”

“You can bet on that,” says Oakly, watching the Aurelians carefully. He’s got one goal tonight—figure out why I didn’t back out of the marriage when I had a clean way out. My mom comes around with teacups filled with tea that looks almost like water, except for a light silver glow, and the four of them cheers and down them in a gulp.

“Be careful tonight,” I say to Doman, which feels rather silly, because he’s a man who has thrown himself into battle. I know he can handle a group of drunk rangers challenging them to shots.

“Of course,” he says, leaning down and giving me a gentle kiss on the cheeks, chaste in front of my family. Then the four of them leave, Oakly’s loud voice fading away as they depart.

I sit down, shaking my head. June catches my eye. “That is not how I expected dinner to go down,” she says.

“I was expecting a blow-up,” I answer, pushing my empty plate away. “I wasn’t expecting Oakly to invite them to the ranger hall.”

My mom smiles. “I had a feeling he would come around.”

“How did you know?”

“Because you wanted us at the ceremony tomorrow. If you really hated the Aurelians, you would have gotten it over with.”

“Ever thought about being a diplomat?”

“I’ve got my hands full with the forests. We need good people here.”

“You want some help cleaning up?” asks June.

“No, no. You two have fun,” she says, and June grabs a bottle of wine and two glasses, grinning at me to come upstairs. I follow her up the stairs to her room next to mine.

Entering her room is like sliding into a time capsule. Wooden shelves, masterfully molded, are shaped out of the living walls of the home. They are filled with terracotta pots of rare herbs, flowers and medicinal plants. They seem placed at random, vines reaching towards the large open windows that overlook the trees, but in the chaos is a natural order. The room glows with soft luminescent from glowing moss plants, the nightlights that June never outgrew.

Inhaling deeply, the aromatic blend of lavender and sage transports me back in time. Gossip sessions, arguments that seemed so important in the moment that vanished overnight, and laughing until we cried, sometimes so loud it earned us a reprimand from my dad, who worked late into the nights in his office. It all floods back.

The canopy bed in the center is covered in handmade quilts in forest patterns that June spent ages on, and sketches of Virelian dresses and outfits paper the walls. “So, when are these sketches going to become reality?” I ask.

“Someday.”

“That’s what you said ten years ago.”

“When the time is right, I’ll know it. Let’s get comfy,” she says, beckoning me to the oversized floor-pillows.

I sit cross-legged, surrounded by a verdant cocoon of memories and life, as she pours each of us a glass of wine. “I’ve missed this so much,” I say, embarrassed by my misty eyes.

“Me too, sis, me too,” she replies. “What do you think your men are up to with Oakly and his crew?”

“Some absurd macho dick-measuring contest. Titus has probably already challenged the entire crew to a drinkingcontest,” I say, imagining the black-haired beast challenging all-comers.

“Then, blind drunk, they’ll race up the trees.” June rolls her eyes. “I hope some of them are sober enough for rope duty if anyone falls.”

“They won’t fall. The Aurelians have this… I don’t know how to describe it. This complete command over their bodies. I’ve never seen anything like it before. Maybe it’s because they’ve lived centuries, but they know the exact limits. You know, when Doman jumped over the lava flow, he calculated it. It was no accident how it went down.”

“No way. I watched that live! He almost fell in.”

I grin ruefully. “They can smell your emotions. It was a test. He wanted to see if I smelled of relief or loss when I thought he burned to a crisp.”

She leans forward, eyes wide. “That’s cruel. And weirdly kind of hot?”

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