ITS BEEN AGES it seems since he’s laid eyes on her. Yet the stark darkness in her tresses and the pout that reminds him of his own wife remains the same. Time escapes him, and he’s forgotten how long it’s been since her sister’s kingdom promised the young woman to France. A part of him w o n d e r s if the war weighed as heavily on her as it did on him, and the other part reminds the king that he only should care for himself. Juana’s kin were meant to be her burden, just as his brother and sister were inevitably his. But those thoughts do little to stand in the way of the ghostly smile that tugs against his lips. Perhaps they would only ever reunite under dreaded circumstances, such as the attempted poisoning of a bastard prince.

❝ I thought I might find you here, despite all the chaos. ❞