Kallia turned on Prim after learning of her deceit. “So why the fuck did I let him go? And where does Blukke fit into this?”

Prim shook her head. “Because he didn’t mean it. And Blukke is another one of Sol’s minions, but he’s good, too. I swear, Kallia. They’re loyal to you now. Roan knew the whole time and made a deal with them to help solve the mystery of who ordered your assassination in exchange for clemency. He only backed out because he found out about me and Dante and wanted to punish him.”

Kallia’s mouth dropped. “You’re telling me my most trusted handmaiden--” Bristol let out an offended Hey! at that. “--and my most trusted guard both chose to let me surround myself with assassins?”

Prim rose from the tub, the sudsy water dripping from her body. She gingerly stepped over the side, not bothering with a towel as she glided across the room to Kallia and took her hands. Dante did her the favor of plucking a robe hanging over the back of a chair and draping it over her with his phantom hands.

“It’s not like that,” Prim said. “Dante is good. He is loyal and trustworthy. And he trusts Blukke, so I know he has to be good, too. I would never put you in danger if I wasn’t certain, Kallia. You know that.”

Kallia furrowed her brows, shaking her head, her mouth still open. She released an incredulous breath. “You barely know him. How can you be so sure he’s loyal to me? How can you be so sure he’s not still planning something?”

Dante watched Prim’s face fall. His loyalty wasn’t hers to prove. He took a step toward Kallia, commanding her attention. “I’m loyal to you because I’m loyal to Prim, and she loves you.”

Kallia stared him down, unyielding. “Those are just words.”

They were, but they were true words.

Dante looked back at Prim. Her eyes were still puffy and red. She’d been in so much pain from the death of Roan. Dante wouldn’t let her suffer the pain of losing him, too. He had to convince Kallia.

Fuck it.

Dante brushed past the princess to approach Prim, gripping her wet, naked waist under the untied robe. He spoke to Kallia, but he kept his eyes locked on Prim’s.

“Prim wants me to keep you safe, so I will keep you safe. Whatever she wants of me, I will do. Whatever she needs of me, I will be.” He swallowed, staring into those beautiful golden brown eyes. “Because I am so senselessly, irrevocably, painfully in love with her, I physically cannot fathom disappointing her or hurting her in any way.” He brought a hand up to brush his knuckles down her face. “I love you, Bear.”

Tears again rimmed Prim’s eyes, but Dante knew these weren’t the same kind as earlier. He heard her heart flutter as she squeezed his hand on her face, then wrapped her hands around his neck to pull him down for a kiss. “Painfully?” she breathed with a laugh.

Dante smiled wide, lifting her up. She wrapped her legs around him. He didn’t care about her nude form pressed against him. He kept his eyes on the absolute joy on her face. “You’re unbearable, remember?”

She choked a laugh. “I love you, too, Dante.”

Dante spun her around, the words filling him with a joyous energy he had to expel. Prim bent down to kiss him again, long and deep, until a throat cleared.

“Can you at least put some clothes on if you’re going to be doing that in front of us?” Bristol called from her seat across the bathing chamber, her legs crossed and her face still wan from the news of Roan’s death.

Dante pulled back, setting Prim down. He kissed her nose as he tugged the robe closed and tied it, then took her hand and turned to Kallia.

The princess stood with her arms crossed and a hip jut out, assessing them with narrowed eyes. “Those are just words, too.”

Dante’s heart sank. He’d done what he’d never thought he’d be able to do. He’d admitted he was in love with Prim. And it still wasn’t enough.

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Prim’s breathing pattern changed. She was scared. “Kallia…”

Dante felt the ring as he gripped Prim’s hand. If words weren’t enough, he’d have to act.

He turned to his love, dropping to his knees, keeping that hand of hers in his, but holding it up. The ring’s blue stone caught the light shining through the windows, setting it ablaze. He heard both other women suck in a breath; apparently Prim had kept it hidden yesterday.

“I found that ring for a reason. You put it on that finger for a reason.”

Prim’s eyes widened, but she didn’t smile.

“Marry me.”

Dante couldn’t read her. Her face, her scent, her breathing and heartbeat. He could sense them all, but they did nothing to reveal what was going through her mind. And she certainly wasn’t voicing anything.

He furrowed his brow, confused. “Marry me, Bear.”

Prim shook her head. “No,” she said quietly, pulling her hand away and removing the ring.

Dante’s heart broke just as it had when she’d loped away from him in Pregg.

But she didn’t give the ring back to him. Prim slid it onto a right hand finger, then cupped his face. “I love you, Dante. And I want us to be everything for one another while we’re together. But we won’t be together forever, and we both know it. So I can’t marry you.”

Dante clasped his hands over hers. He didn’t have to go back to Pregg. His family was taken care of, that vault in the Royal Bench proof of that. Marnie was nearly grown, and he could still visit or she could travel south on Zulas. And Blukke was set on staying here, so he’d even have his brother.

“I’ll stay. Marry me, and I will stay in Hogard.” He pulled Prim’s hands away so he could look at Kallia. “Let me prove my loyalty. I will still find and kill whoever ordered your assassination. I will find and kill whoever murdered Roan. I will be a guard. I will be whatever you want me to be.”

Kallia continued her assessing stare, alternating between Dante and Prim. “How were you able to enter and exit Prim’s room undetected?”

He would start to prove his loyalty by offering his secrets. Dante shifted into the tiny hummingbird form, flitting in and out of the skinny windows in the chamber. When he returned, he shifted into his natural form, stretching out his fae wings. “I can freeform shift.”

Kallia’s face remained in its considering pose, though Bristol had a look of shock and awe upon hers.

Then the princess tightened her features. “Which means you could have entered the dungeons undetected as a mouse or fly, poisoning Somanti so he didn’t give away your past. Which means you could have exited the dungeons undetected and entered Roan’s room, killing him in retribution for turning you in.”

The chamber suddenly became very quiet, as if all three women were holding their breaths.

“No, Highness. Well, yes--I could have. But I didn’t.” He turned back to Prim, who was looking at him with uncertainty. Oh, gods. She was actually considering it. “Bear, you know I wouldn’t. If I was going to kill Sol, I would have just done it with my gift. But I didn’t because I wanted to help Kallia so I could get back to Pregg.”

Her breathing shifted again. This was bad.

“I didn’t leave the dungeons. Roan threatened to hurt Marnie if I tried anything. And I wouldn’t have killed him anyway! I would never do that to you.”

Too focused on Prim, Dante didn’t notice Kallia had walked to the door, but he turned to face her as she opened it and called to her guards. They appeared at the door a moment later, and she pointed at him. “Take him to the dungeons. I want him monitored by three guards every second of the day and night. Collect Blukke Rama as well. Do not torture them. Keep them comfortable. They are not being charged with anything as of yet. I will provide further instructions later.”

Kallia’s guards entered, doing their best to hide the shock of finding Dante’s new face and wings.

“Kallia--” Prim began, but the princess turned an icy stare at the handmaiden, stopping her.

“Our friend was murdered, Prim. I’m not going to let the only suspect run free, no matter what you think he is.”

Dante didn’t resist as the guards took him by the arms. He looked once more at Prim, whose face was so full of pain and grief and sorrow that he nearly dropped to his knees again.

“I didn’t do it,” he said again as they walked him out.

Dante was already in the entertaining suite--Tuck, Sarasha, and the other two escorts gaping at his new form--when he thought of something. He twisted his head back to see Kallia watching him go. “The vial. Roan had it. See that it’s collected.”

The princess only stared at him as she closed the door, though Prim took a step to reveal herself in the narrowing opening.

She mouthed I love you before the door snicked shut.

Dante’s heart lifted, knowing that at least she had determined he was innocent. He burned the image into his brain, not knowing when he would see her again.