13

“Even as a man?” he asked gently.

“Especially as a man,” I admitted. Sleeping close as wolves was different—it was more instinctive, animal, functional. As humans, it meant something different. Something more.

“Well,” he said with a small, almost hopeful smile, “I run fairly hot as a man, too, so you’re in luck.”

I curled up in our shared bedroll first, under the heavy blankets in just my underclothes. Elias pulled off his shirt, revealing all that broad, tan muscle, and then crawled in next to me.

“This all right?” he murmured as he set his arm at my waist.

“Yes,” I murmured. “Much warmer.”

It took hardly any time at all for Elias to sink into a deep slumber. I matched my breathing to his, slow and heavy, and snuggled a little closer to him. As I drifted toward sleep as well, I realized that even in the wilderness of Frasia, with an unknown kingdom on the horizon, I’d never before felt as safe as I did now with Elias holding me.

4

“G

ood morning, lovebirds,” Kodan said as she stuck her head into our tent. “Sun’s up, and it’s time for us to get moving.”

Elias hauled me closer to his chest. He bared his teeth in Kodan’s general direction and growled, but his eyes were still closed, and he was clearly still half-asleep. I laughed and let myself be cuddled, as Kodan rolled her eyes. Something warm in my chest glowed at his instinctively protective reaction—no one had ever cared for me like this. Maybe Kodan had been right when she’d said that this was the real Elias.

“Up!” Kodan said. “Five minutes before I come in and join this spooning session.”

“Try it,” Elias growled.

Kodan just laughed and left us alone in our tent. Elias blinked into wakefulness, then suddenly released his hold on me, like he’d only just realized how he’d been clinging. He sat up, propped on one elbow, and rubbed the sleep from his eyes. Then he looked at me, eyes warm. “You sleep okay?”

I pulled the sheepskin blanket around my shoulders. “I did.”

“Good,” he said. His eyes traveled over me, slow and luxurious, like he’d much rather spend a little more than five minutes in bed. “Unfortunately, Kodan is right. We should get back on the road. Should be able to make it to Shianga before it gets dark.”

I nodded in agreement. The travel had been stressful, and I knew there was a lot on Elias’ mind regarding the details of this diplomatic convoy. Once we were settled in Shianga, and had some real privacy, I’d talk to him. Not just about our relationship—whatever it currently was—but about my role as queen.

Kodan had said that I brought out the man he really was. I wanted to be his advisor. His partner in leadership. Not just a pretty face in the room, or the prize he’d won in the Choice. I was more than that, and I was beginning to think that together, we could do a lot more for Frasia than we could do separately.

I’d thought I’d moved from my father’s iron cage to Elias’ gilded one. Maybe, initially, it had been a cage—but maybe, just maybe, Elias had left the door wide open for me. I wasn’t going to be stifled the way I had been in Daybreak. This trip was going to be a new start. The real beginning of my life as queen.

“You’ve got that dangerous look in your eye,” Elias said as he tugged on a clean shirt.

“What look?” I said, snapping out of my reverie.

“Hard to explain,” he said with a smile. “It’s similar to the one I saw when you fought me in the arena, though. Determined? Maybe a little barmy?”

I chucked a sock at him. “Barmy?! You would speak to your queen like that?” I bit my lip to try to keep my smile from breaking into a laugh.

He dodged the sock, then chucked it back. “What? It’s one of your finer qualities, in my opinion.”

I stood up and started to get dressed as well. “Don’t worry,” I said. “It’s nothing urgent. We can talk in Shianga.”

He smiled. “I look forward to it.”

The attendants packed up the campsite, as the rest of the party had just risen by the time we were ready to head out again. Kodan sent two of the attendants ahead as a scout, and they ran ahead briskly in their wolf forms. The last leg of the trip to Shianga was through the mountain pass. After about an hour of travel, we reached the narrow dirt path that led out of the crossing. The rocky side of the mountain was to our left, and to the right the terrain melted into grassy knolls, still dusted in snow from the storm last night. We climbed out of the carriages so the horses could better navigate things.

The remaining attendant walked in the front, leading the vehicles forward, while Elias and I walked behind them. Kodan, Fina, and Adora were bringing up the rear with a bit of distance between us. The pass was stunningly beautiful, with the snowy knolls climbing into another mountain, and the crisp blue sky was hardly broken by any cloud cover at all. Despite the cold weather, Elias was barefoot, moving silent and graceful over the hard-packed dirt.

“Gorgeous, isn’t it?” he murmured, nodding toward the horizon. “I always love seeing the mountains after so much time spent in the forest.”

“I’ve never seen them this close,” I admitted. I’d known they were large from my maps, and from the paintings I’d seen, but viewing the rock up close was something different. I couldn’t seem to get enough, my eyes drinking in every detail of the horizon and the featured face of the mountain.

“Never?” he asked.

I shook my head, trying to ignore the flush of embarrassment in my cheeks. “Never. The Choice was the first time I’d left Daybreak at all.”

“What?” he balked. “Ever?”

I wrapped my arms around myself. “It wasn’t by choice,” I huffed.

“No, I’m not passing judgment,” he said with a wave of his hand. “I’m just—I’m surprised, that’s all.”