ould produce turned out to be

complain. "In a palace built for three thousand. The orchards stand, because trees do not

s alive. The king was alive. In the arithmetic of the Cu

mean he glanced at me between bites. I mean his gold eyes stayed on my face the entire time, the

ething," I said, o

I have a talen

you that?

I suspect was her version of a laugh

archment across the table. Black ink. A line of wor

aid. "All of it

heading read. Below it, in a

be housed in the east wing, guarded, fed, an

g's curse as she is able, at hours agreed be

on to her, from this night until her last. What

sister, or the boy who spoke rejection - the king wi

will open. But if the king dies of the curse unfed, th

what she is, with my name and not m

iro

time, because the fourth line

or me," I said. "You've

eather. "You ended it in one touch. Whatever else you are, moon-daughter, you are the reason I woke up

s I can

n alway

the m

ooking." He turned his hand palm-up on the table - the hand I had healed. The skin was still smooth where the blade had been. "I don't want that fo

at the space

terday I had been a tribute - a crate with a heartbeat. Tonight a king was offering me ward, weapon, r

ros. If I stay and keep you alive, I never get to be free of this place. You've

prise, maybe. People probably didn't

promised me. And what I get-" he paused, and for a moment the ruin in his voice showed through the level tone, "-is one person in this palace who isn't afraid of me. Mara manages her fear

ere far below, the palace br

anges,"

e th

r Cerise did, they answer to pack law, not to your dungeon. I want them *ruined*, Kairos. Legally. Pub

dark and, I am not ashamed to write, beautiful. "Y

ive long, quiet l

And the

daughter." I took the

ined voice go through me like the first sip o

gne

me my father had sold and my sister had spat on - and I

th his before the ink was

nights from now, I will be chained in the old ritual chamber, because that is what remains of what my father built

y means I choose. And I'm telling you now, king of the Curse

ow what you'r

d." I turned my hand over and laced my fingers through his, moonlight and candlelight and that faint silver shimmer under m

n world sat very still, holding my hand like some

"The curse doesn't just burn. It *wears* things. It takes shapes. The priestesses saw their mothers. The physician sa

four, a blur of brown hair and a humming

face it likes," I said

men look at things they've

he contract off the table with care, as if it were already a reli

ked the question that had been sitt

everything burned." My voice sounded steadier t

ith his hand

oice like a man con

her. And he asked me - so ge