Kairi woke with a slow, sluggish awareness from someone who had slept for far too long and awakening was a task of its own. Warmth of a body was the first feeling she recognize. The steady rise and fall of breath beneath her cheek. Wool. Leather. Road dust. The rhythmic sway of a horse’s gait working through her bones. An arm wrapped around her middle, firm and careful, the kind of hold you gave someone you refused to let fall. She was safe, she felt safe and he first thought was simple and wrong.

  Kylar

  Relief hit so hard it made her reckless. She turned her face into the warmth and buried it deeper, tucking herself closer like she could crawl into the safest place she knew. Her nose brushed skin, the side of a neck that smelled like sweat and soap and steel. She let out a breath of relief. Her fingers curled and grabbed into the fabric of his shirt and a little big of his gear. The strap that went across his chest, she anchored to it with the memory of have done it hundreds of times.

  The body she was laying against went rigid. She must of startled him. She didn't want to open her eyes yet. The comfort she wanted to hold onto just a little longer before realty slid back into place. She shifted slightly pressing her forehead against his neck, resting her head on his shoulder and just listening to his breathing and heartbeat.

  His heartbeat was pounding quickly. Fast. Hard. Sudden, like a startled deer realizing it was being watched.

  That was when her mind finally caught up with her body. This wasn't Kylar's particular smell. This heartbeat was not Kylar’s rhythm. This was a different steadiness entirely, layered over a very human moment of panic.

  A hand touched her shoulder from beside the horse, gentle, familiar.

  “Kairi.”

  Kylar’s voice. Not vibrating through the body she was clinging to. Just… beside her.

  Her eyes snapped open. Trees blurred past. Morning light washed pale over the road. Horses flanked them, hooves thudding. Zen’s horse to one side, Kurt’s to the other, Kylar riding close enough to reach her if she swayed. And she was not curled into Kylar at all. She was curled into Darius.

  Her face was still tucked against his neck. Her hand was still gripping his shirt.

  Darius stared straight ahead like the road needed an eye on it or it might vanish. His jaw was locked. His ears were turning a slow, humiliating red. His arm around her tightened reflexively the second she jolted, holding her in place so she wouldn’t slide off the saddle.

  Kairi released his shirt like it had turned to flame.

  “I…” she started, and it came out thin, half croak, half mortification.

  Zen was trying very hard to hold it in. Then he lost it. He folded forward in the saddle, laughter bursting out of him in sharp, helpless waves. “Darius!” he wheezed. “Saints above, I have never seen a man’s soul evacuate his body so quickly. That expression!”

  "Zen" Darius said without turning his head, voice low and dangerous.

  Zen wiped at his eyes with the back of his hand and pointed like an accusing bard. “You went completely still. Completely. Like a statue in the temple."

  Kurt was trying very hard not to laugh. He failed in smaller, quieter ways, a choke here, a cough there, the corners of his mouth twitching like they were fighting for their lives.

  Kylar rode on Kairi’s other side, watching her with tired relief in his eyes, the kind that softened his whole face. “Good morning, Princess,” he said gently, as if he might startle her if he spoke too loudly.

  Kairi blinked at him, then looked down at herself, her body finally remembering why she had been limp and burning and terrified. She shifted carefully, expecting pain to spear through her side. It didn’t. There was soreness, yes, like a bruise that had been pressed too many times, but the sharp, tearing agony she remembered was… gone. Her breathing didn’t catch. Her ribs didn’t scream. The bandage at her waist felt more like an afterthought than a necessity. Her hand drifted down to her side without permission, fingers testing the edge of the wrap. She expected dampness. Blood. Heat. The cloth was clean.

  She swallowed, suddenly cold in a different way. “What…?” she whispered.

  Darius’s grip tightened again, protective, even as his heart still hammered against her shoulder like it couldn’t decide whether it was saving her or fleeing her. “You were feverish,” he said, controlled, clipped. “All night. Then it broke.” He still didn't look at her. "Kylar's shoulder was too injured for him to have you ride with him" He said as a explanation for why she woke up against him.

  She blinked. He thought she was asking about him holding her. She looked down again, as if her body might confess its secrets if she stared hard enough. “No, that's fine. Sorry for grabbing you, but...It’s… it’s not…” She pressed her palm more firmly to her side. “How is it not worse? My wound?"

  Kurt finally stopped fighting his smile and let the awe spill out of him like he’d been holding it back for hours.

  “It’s not worse because you’re incredible,” he blurted. Then, as if he realized he’d spoken too loudly, he added quickly, “You saved me. You pulled me up with ice, you fried men with lightning, and then you healed yourself somehow. I’m a little…” He gestured helplessly, searching for the right word. “Awestruck.”

  Everyone stared at Kurt for a long moment.

  Kurt held up both hands, defensive, earnest. “What? It’s true.”

  Zen’s grin returned instantly, wicked and delighted. “Kurt,” he said sweetly, “are you falling in love with the princess? hmm?"

  Kurt’s face went scarlet so fast it was almost magical. “No. I mean. I’m not. That’s not what I said.”

  Zen leaned closer, still riding steady, still relentless. “You didn’t say it. Your face is currently writing poetry about it.”

  Kurt spluttered. “My face is not writing poetry.”

  Zen nodded gravely. “It’s doing sonnets. Very tragic ones. About how she saved you and now your heart belongs to the Phoenix.”

  Darius muttered, “Zen.”

  Kairi should have laughed. She tried. It came out small and shaky, because the shock of being mostly whole again was sitting in her chest like a stone with sunlight under it. She didn't know how she had healed herself without knowing she had done it.

  Kairi turned her head slightly, still trapped in Darius’s careful hold, and realized she was still closer to him than propriety would ever allow if they weren’t half-dead on a roadside. Her cheeks warmed again. She shifted to sit up properly.

  Darius’s arm tightened at once, reflex fast. “Careful,” he said.

  “I’m fine,” she insisted automatically.

  Darius and Kylar were both looking at her now as Zen was teasing Kurt behind them.

  Kylar’s mouth twitched, tired amusement mixing with the lingering fear in his eyes. He glanced at Kairi’s hand still hovering near her bandage. “Does it hurt?” he asked, quieter now.

  Kairi pressed again, testing, almost afraid to believe it. “Not like it should,” she admitted.

  Kylar exhaled, a long slow release that looked like it had been trapped in him since the bolt hit. “Good.”

  Kairi’s throat tightened. She wanted to say thank you to all of them, for not leaving her, for not letting her slip away into the fever, for holding her steady on the horse and on the road and through whatever the night had been.

  Instead she managed, “I’m sorry,” and it came out directed at Darius because she was still in his arms and because she had accidentally used his neck like a pillow.

  Darius’s eyes flicked down for the first time to her face, quick and careful, meeting hers for a heartbeat. His expression was the same as always, steady, loyal, protective.But his cheeks were faintly pink.

  “You were asleep,” he said, like that settled everything.

  Zen made a pleased sound, like a man watching a story unfold exactly the way he wanted. “She was asleep,” he repeated to Kurt, stage whisper. “He says. Like his heart didn’t sprint a mile.”

  Darius’s gaze snapped sideways. “Zen.”

  Kairi’s lips pressed together, trying not to smile.

  She looked ahead, to the line of road, to the morning that felt too normal after the bridge. Her hand drifted back to her side one more time, confirming the impossible. It was mostly healed, very little of the wound remained. Was this some sort of ability she had always had? She can't say she has ever had an injury like this before. A quick flash of memory of the bolt in his shoulder. She turned and looked at Kylar, he was watching the road but his eyes shifted back to her. She could see his shoulder, she needed to heal him. She looked back over to the rest of them. She had missed some of their conversation.

  Darius muttered, “I hate you.”

  Zen beamed. “No you don’t. You’d miss me.”

  Kurt said quietly, with a little bit of a laugh. “He would.”

  Darius stared at Kurt.

  Zen was about to say something but stopped at the sound of her laughter. He looked over to her. "There we are, the Princess is laughing again. There is hope yet Darius."

  Darius only groaned and picked up the pace a little bit.

  Later, when the road smoothed out and they started seeing other travelers for once they decided to let the horses relax for a while. Once Darius let her off his horse and trusted she could stand on her own, he tended to the horses. Kairi eyed Kylar for a while and eventually went over to him.

  Kylar was seated as Zen was checking the bandage. She came over and watched for a moment. Kylar's eyes lifted to hers. "You have that look." He pointed out.

  She ignored his tone and sat besides him on his left side. Zen had just pulled away the soiled bandage and the wound was visible and raw. He looked between the two of them and gestured between them. "Am I a third wheel right now?"

  That pulled Kairi's eyes from the hole in Kylar's shoulder to Zen. "No. But, hold him still for me?"

  Kylar's eyes narrowed immediately. " Kairi, No."

  Zen sat there unsure what to do. Listen to the foreign Princess that his Prince has started courting? Or...his Prince and fellow shadow? "...I'm sorry Princess, I have conflicted interests."

  Kairi nodded. "Okay, I'm going to heal him. Please don't get in my way." She scooted to kneeling in front of Kylar now, nudging Zen out of the way. He didn't fight her and stood by watching with a delighted smile.

  Darius was close enough to hear this and looked to Kylar who was looking at her. "Are you well enough to heal him?"

  "She shouldn't" Kylar said flat as he watched her, as if he would stop her from touching him if he had to.

  She on the other hand was looking at his wound and her fingers curled into her cloak. Kairi leaned forward slightly, careful of her ribs, and peered at Kylar’s upper left shoulder where the bolt had torn through. The swelling was apparent with the mottle of bruising around the exit wound. She glanced to his eyes and waited. "Let me help you. Please"

  Kylar jaw tensed as he chewed on her request. "I don't want you to burn yourself out. No"

  Kairi’s brows rose slowly, the way storms gather. “No?”

  Kylar’s voice sharpened. “You’re not one hundred percent yet.”

  Kairi held his gaze, unblinking. “And you’re full of poison and pride.”

  Zen moved over to Darius side and spoke softly. "I don't think he has a say."

  Darius frowned, whispering back with a soldier’s seriousness. “I don’t think he ever had a say.”

  Kylar shut his eyes for a moment, then opened them and looked at them both without turning his head. “We can hear you.”

  Zen grinned, utterly unrepentant. “We know.”

  Kairi took the moment Kylar’s attention slipped, and placed her palms carefully over his shoulder.

  Kylar inhaled, realizing too late what she was doing. “Kairi.”

  She didn’t stop. She didn’t hesitate. Her magic answered like it had been waiting for permission. Heat, first. Not the harsh, flaring heat of anger, but a controlled burn, the kind that ate poison without eating flesh. It sank into him through her hands, precise and merciless.

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  Kylar’s breath hitched. A low curse slipped out of him, rough with pain and surprise. “Saints… Kairi…” But he tried to hold still through the burn, if she was going to do this, he wasn't going to be a pain and keep moving.

  Kairi’s concentration narrowed until the world became: his pulse, the poison’s residue, and the threads of his damaged muscle. She felt it, that slick wrongness beneath the skin, the faint sting that wasn’t natural. She let her magic flow to the spots and slowly burned it out, breaking it down so his body could do the rest.

  Kylar’s shoulders trembled once. The wince was immediate, instinctive, like his body wanted to recoil from the sudden intensity. Then, as the worst of the poison was stripped away, the tension shifted. The pain changed shape. Less stabbing. More ache. More… bearable.

  Kairi exhaled and didn’t let herself get distracted by the way his eyes softened, or how his hands weren't fisted into his trousers anymore. Just relaxed against his thighs now. Her magic cooled into the smooth knitting and soothing waves it brought that he was used to. She pressed and guided, coaxing his body to remember the shape it was suppose to be. She started deep in the wound, knitting the muscle back together slowly. Once she felt the strain deep in her core she stopped, but kept her hands where they were.

  Kylar’s shoulders dropped a fraction like someone had cut a string holding him up. His eyes closed briefly, not from weakness, but from relief he couldn’t quite hide.

  Zen stared openly, fascination overriding his usual sarcasm. “What… does that feel like?” he asked, as if Kylar might have words for the impossible. “Like the other healers?”

  Kylar took a breath and tested his shoulder by shifting his arm slightly. There was less spiking pain, no sick nausea crawling up his spine. There was still pain, but less.

  He opened his eyes, looking forward, but his voice softened. “Different,” he said. “More… soothing. Stronger. Like she’s not just closing wounds, she’s telling your body it’s allowed to stop panicking.”

  Kairi’s lips twitched. “Your body panics a lot.”

  Kylar shot her a look. “My body is having a reasonable reaction to being shot.”

  Kairi leaned back and wiped her hands on her skirt out of habit even though there was nothing on them. “You’re welcome.”

  Kylar stared at her for a long second, something complicated in his gaze. Gratitude, yes. But also fear, because gratitude always came with the reminder of what it cost her.

  “You shouldn’t have,” he said quietly.

  Kairi’s eyes narrowed again, but this time it wasn’t storm. It was stubborn affection. “You would have sat there and suffered to protect me from… what? My own hands?” She leaned in, voice low so only he could hear. “You don’t get to decide that alone anymore.”

  Kylar went very still at the word anymore like it was a door he didn’t know he’d been waiting to open. His eyes softening. "I never have before." he barely whispered to her. Kairi flushed a little at the look he was giving her. The way his eyes were warm and open for once.

  Zen watched the silence between them and made a face like he’d just bitten into something sweet and regrettably tender. He leaned toward Kurt and stage-whispered, “He looks like he wants to marry her.”

  Kurt whispered back, completely serious, “He is already in the process of doing that.”

  Zen’s eyes widened. “Oh yes. That is correct."

  Darius, had gotten the horses, let out a long sigh that sounded like a man watching his future paperwork multiply. “Can we focus on not dying again?”

  Kairi pulled away standing up and took a small breath before offering a hand up for Kylar. He took it and stood up. Before he let go of her hand he gave it a small squeeze, "Thank you" and went over to Onyx, trying to look like a normal guard on a normal road and not a man who’d just had his life held together by a girl with fire in her veins.

  His shoulder didn’t scream when he moved. That alone felt like a miracle.

  Kairi’s grin softened into something quieter. “Always,” she replied quietly. Then looked between them all, then followed Kylar to Onyx.

  Darius watched her trying to coax Kylar into letting her ride with him. But Onyx was too pleased, the War beast kept moving right next to her and looking at her like. Get on now. She got her way and soon enough they were on the move again.

  They’d made camp in the same efficient rhythm they’d been forced to learn on the road: a pocket of trees for windbreak, horses tied where they could graze without wandering, bedrolls placed close enough to share heat but far enough to still reach for steel in a blink.

  Kairi’s little lightning-thread had the fire going, and now the flame sat between them like a small, stubborn sun. It painted their faces in warm gold, softened the hard lines of the day. Kurt hovered a few steps back, holding a bundle of kindling he gathered. He kept glancing at Kairi, then away, then at the fire, then at his own boots.

  Zen noticed and watched him for a moment. He looked over to Kylar who was busy brushing down the horses. Then he looked over to Darius, who was checking bags for rations to split between everyone. Zen finally went over to Kurt and leaned over. "You're staring" He whispered.

  Kurt cleared his throat, and it came out squeaky. He shifted his weight. He didn’t step closer. This caught Kylar's attention now. He set the brush back in the bag and walked over and stepped in front of Kurt, not to block him, but to spare him. There was a difference.

  “Kurt,” Kylar said quietly, and his tone wasn’t warning, it was instruction. “Breathe.”

  Kurt blinked like he’d forgotten that was an option. “I am.”

  Zen’s grin turned razor-sharp. “No you’re not.”

  Kurt’s ears flushed. “I just… I’ve never been around someone who can do that.”

  Kairi glanced up from the fire, expression softening. “Do what?”

  Kurt opened his mouth, closed it, then gestured helplessly in a vague circle at her in general. “Be… that,” he finished, and immediately looked horrified at his own sentence.

  Zen made a pleased hum. “He’s shy. He’s not in love.”

  Kurt shot him a look that begged for mercy.

  Zen ignored it. “He’s just socially malfunctioning. It’s adorable.”

  Darius, crouched near Kairi to make sure she wasn’t quietly pushing herself again, gave Kurt a sympathetic glance. “It’s been a day,” he said, which was as close as Darius got to comfort without signing paperwork.

  Kylar sat down opposite Kairi, close enough that the firelight caught the faint tightness around his eyes. He’d been quieter since the bridge, since the poison, since the way she’d burned through pain like it was fuel. He looked like a man trying to keep a dozen things inside his chest from clawing their way out. And then, like a man who needed something practical to hold onto, he asked the question that had been circling him for the past couple hours.

  “Kairi,” Kylar said, carefully. “Has Rush ever mentioned how he plans to handle your courtship in Carlbrin?”

  The fire snapped once. Everyone’s attention tilted. Kairi didn’t hesitate. Not even a breath.

  “If it was his way,” she said bluntly, “I would be single the rest of my life.”

  Silence hit like a thrown cloak.

  Zen grabbed Kurt and pulled him down to sitting around the small fire. Then, as if pulled by the same string, all three men turned and looked at Kylar.

  Kylar’s ears went faintly pink. He stared very intently at a stick near the fire as if it contained deep philosophical answers. “He hasn’t told me no yet,” he muttered.

  Kairi leaned back slightly, hands folded in her lap, and looked at him with a calm and thoughtful expression. She pulled on the chain and looked at the ring for a moment and considered.

  “He accepted your request” she said, and her eyes glittered with wicked humor, “He is testing you.” She laughed lightly as the they all were confused. Kylar most of all.

  "He seems to always be testing me" Kylar muttered.

  Darius glanced to the ring and then to her face. "Testing how?"

  The looked to Kylar was pure affection. " By sparring with Dato here and thoroughly, repeatedly beating the living hell out of him."

  Zen burst out laughing. Kurt and Darius, meanwhile, were stuck on a different part of that sentence. They looked back at Kylar with the same expression men wore when realizing the river was deeper than expected.

  “Repeatedly?” Kurt blurted before he could stop himself. Darius didn’t say the word, but his face did. Slowly. Clearly. How many times?

  Kylar forced a small, dignified smile that did not fool anyone. “I won a couple times.”

  Zen leaned toward Darius and Kurt like he was narrating a play. “He says it like it’s a medal.”

  “It is,” Kylar snapped, but there wasn’t real heat in it.

  Kairi’s mouth curved, pleased despite herself. “He learns,” she said, as if that explained everything.

  “It’s part of the job,” Kylar murmured.

  Darius stared at him. “Your job is being thrown.”

  Kylar sighed like a man accepting a cosmic truth. “Apparently.”

  Zen clapped his hands once, delighted. “We should take bets. Not on the courting. On the sparring. How long until Kylar stops bouncing.”

  Kairi looked over, expression innocent. “He stopped bouncing after day three.”

  Kylar made a low sound that could have been a laugh or a prayer. “Wildflower.”

  Zen’s grin sharpened again. “Oh we’re doing nicknames now.”

  Darius cleared his throat and tried to steer this back toward something that didn’t involve Kylar’s dignity being set on fire. “So,” Darius said, “if Rush’s preference is ‘no one touches my sister ever,’ and Kylar’s preference is ‘please let me continue existing near her,’ what are we actually doing in Carlbrin?”

  Kairi’s eyes softened, but her voice stayed steady. “Rush may have already started my season without me knowing since Dato asked, properly it seems."

  Zen noted her choice of words and glanced to Kylar who also had a puzzled expression. So he asked. "Started your season? What does that mean?"

  She shifted to get more comfortable. "In Tearia, when a high ranking noble, or Princess decides to court. It is considered a open season for her hand. There are multiple suitors that come to present themselves. To ask permission and to do trials."

  Zen leaned back on his hands. " Hmm... You're saying that Tearian Crown Prince Rush has started your trials? Upon our Prince Dato?" He paused for a moment. "Who.. can present themselves?"

  Kairi seemed pleased to talk about Tearian traditions. "Anyone. The trials are there to weed out the useless, weak and incompatible suitors." She looked to Kylar and smiled. " I don't think you are any of those"

  He nodded. "Thank you for having confidence in me." He looked over to Darius who looked intrigued and confused by this whole concept of a open courtship system.

  Kairi then tried to get back to where she was going. “Trinity, my older sister, when she courted. The men had duels.”

  Zen’s face lit up like she’d handed him candy. “Of course they did.”

  Darius’s brows rose. “Duels. As in… sanctioned?”

  “As in,” Kairi said, counting on her fingers like she was listing herbs, “public. Loud. Very dramatic. Very Tearian.” She shrugged one shoulder. “And Rush won almost all of his.”

  The fire crackled. Someone’s horse snorted in the dark.

  Kylar stared at her. "Why would Rush be in the duels? Wouldn't it be suitor against suitor?"

  Kairi nodded. "Mostly it is suitor against suitor, but the men of the family of the lady in season could join in trials. Rush is the kind of brother who takes care of his family, and makes a point to test anyone who would take his sisters away." She gave a small smile. "He did enjoy every minute of it. Krezin too. They both did."

  Kurt made a small choking sound. Darius’s mouth opened, closed, then opened again like he was trying to find the polite way to ask what in the saints was happening in Tearia.

  Zen, meanwhile, leaned forward with his elbows on his knees, delighted. “Tell me there was blood.”

  “There were bruises,” Kairi corrected. “A lot of bruises. My brothers were… efficient.”

  Kylar’s eyes narrowed slightly, not in anger, but in that focused way he got when he was filing away information that might save someone later. “So your brothers fought your sister’s suitors.”

  Kairi made a thoughtful sound. “Well, Trinity fought them too. She liked her trials. And my brothers liked being… involved.”

  Zen smirked. “Wait, your sister fought her own suitors?”

  Darius stared at Kairi. "Are you going to start sparring with Kylar?"

  Kairi continued “It was part of the whole spectacle. Trinity wanted to see who had skill, who had discipline, who would panic when the stakes were real.” Her gaze slid toward Kylar, warm with meaning. “Who would keep their head when the world tried to take it off.” Then she looked to Darius. "I've sparred with Kylar for years."

  Kylar pulled his cloak a little tighter around him. "So are you saying you have been testing me for years?"

  And Kairi, like the universe had handed her a perfect stone and she couldn’t resist throwing it, added brightly, “Of course. Also, Rush has a record now. First beating your father Niveus and beating you.”

  The campfire went very, very quiet.

  It was not a normal quiet. It was the sort of quiet that happened right before someone made a decision that would be quoted later in a court transcript.

  Kurt’s eyes went huge. Darius’s expression went blank in the exact way it did when he was trying not to react to something that could be considered treasonous if repeated incorrectly. Even Zen paused, which was impressive.

  They all looked, very slowly, to Kylar.

  Kylar stared at Kairi for a long moment. Then he laughed. It wasn’t loud, but it was real. It cracked something in the tightness that had been holding him all day, and the sound of it made the rest of them exhale like they’d been holding their breath without meaning to.

  “I will have to ask him to relay this wonderful tale over dinner sometime,” Kylar said, voice dry and sweet in the way that promised disaster for someone later.

  Zen made a noise of pure appreciation. “That’s the most royal threat I’ve ever heard.”

  Darius blinked at Kylar. “You’re… taking that well.”

  Kylar’s smile tugged sideways. “If I start taking it personally every time my father ended up on his back, I’ll never have time to sleep.”

  Kurt coughed, half laugh, half terror. “I don’t think you’re supposed to say it like that.”

  Kylar glanced at him. “I didn’t say it in public. That’s what matters.”

  Zen slapped his own knee, delighted again. “Noble rules. You can say anything as long as you say it quietly near a fire.”

  Kairi’s grin softened into something more affectionate. She watched Kylar for a second, then looked past him into the dark, like she could see the shape of what was coming in Carlbrin. Temples. Politics. Eyes. Expectations. All the knives dressed up as manners.

  “Rush and Niveus were good friends,” she said then, like she was placing the truth gently on the ground so it didn’t shatter. “It wasn’t… cruel. Not really. It was testing. It was respect, in their language.”

  Kylar’s expression shifted, the humor settling into something steady. “My father respects strength,” he said quietly. “Rush has that in excess.”

  Darius tilted his head. “So this is normal for them.”

  Kairi made a face. “Normal is a strong word. But yes. It’s not hatred. It’s… ritual.”

  Zen squinted at the fire. “Your rituals sound like they involve a lot of bruising.”

  Kairi pointed at him. “And yours don’t?”

  Zen opened his mouth, then shut it, conceding the point with a grin.

  Kairi leaned back on her hands, gaze lifting to the stars between branches. “Krezin even asked Niveus to have lots of sons for my sake. The brat.”

  Kurt blinked. “Your… twin?”

  Kairi’s eyes softened, just for a breath. “Yes.”

  Darius’s expression changed too, some brotherly understanding sliding into place.

  “It was worse,” Kairi muttered continuing. “He said it with this solemn little face like he was negotiating a treaty.” She rolled her eyes, but there was fondness beneath it. “Please, Crown Prince Niveus. Have sons for her. Lots of sons. Strong ones.”

  Zen wheezed. “That’s… horrifying.”

  “It’s adorable,” Kairi corrected immediately, then hesitated, the humor thinning at the edges. “And it’s… Krezin. He says things like that because he thinks he has to secure every future he can’t control.”

  Kylar’s gaze lowered, thoughtful. “He sounds like someone who’s been powerless.”

  Kairi’s throat worked. She nodded once. "There were things he wished he could have changed."

  Darius cleared his throat softly, like he was trying to step around grief without stepping on it. “So. In Tearia, courting is… public. Duels. Trials. Many suitors.”

  “Yes,” Kairi said, the bluntness back in place like armor. “And in Naberia, it seems more… private. More about intent, permission, and politics.”

  Zen’s grin returned. “And bruises.”

  Kylar pointed one finger at Zen without looking. “You’re not helping.”

  “I’m thriving,” Zen corrected.

  Kairi’s gaze slid to Kylar again, and her voice gentled. “If it makes you feel any better,” she said, “Rush beat your father into the ground, and your father still invited him to dinner afterward.”

  Kylar huffed a laugh. “That does make me feel better, actually.”

  Kurt stared at the flames. “I don’t understand royal families.”

  Darius patted Kurt’s shoulder like he’d just been handed a doomed assignment. “No one does.”

  Zen leaned back, hands behind his head, entirely pleased with the evening’s revelations. “So the plan remains the same.” Zen grinned. “We get to Carlbrin, we learn the rules, we keep the Princess alive, and we do not let anyone force her into a festival of suitors unless she personally requests it.”

  Kairi lifted a brow. “And if I request it?”

  Kylar’s head snapped up so fast it was almost comical.

  Zen brightened. “Then Kurt gets a chance.”

  Kurt made a strangled noise. “I do not!”

  Kairi laughed, and the sound eased the night again.

  Kylar exhaled, gaze fixed on Kairi like she was the only steady thing in a world of shifting ground. “Ask my father over dinner,” he repeated, softer now, “and I’ll ask Rush too. About what he plans. About what he thinks is ‘proper.’”

  Kairi’s smile turned small and real. “Thank you.”

  Darius nodded once, satisfied. “We should set watches and get some sleep."

  Zen sighed dramatically. “Fine. Boring.”

  Kylar tossed a small pebble at Zen’s boot. "I'll take first watch. You want second?"

  "Of course highness." Zen got up and moved toward the bedrolls. " Don't let her beat you up and throw you to the ground highness."

  That got both of them flushing and Zen considered that a great way to end the night.