PROLOGUE
It wasn’t loveat first sight.
Yet she believed from the moment she chose him that she’d found her life’s purpose.
The young prince had broad shoulders, golden hair that caught the flickering candlelight, and eyes bluer than the skies in Iodale. His smile exuded confidence. His stance exuded power.
She’d been terrified when her parents had said she would be betrothed to a human prince. Fourteen was too young for a fae to even begin contemplating marriage, yet the moment she set foot in the castle’s red and gold throne room, it was all she could think of.
Suddenly, the four years she would have to wait to become his bride felt like a lifetime.
Prince Alrecof Vellana.
His name became a treasure more valuable than any she owned.
Lady Roisin Newland would learn to love Prince Alrec, first son of King Bedwyr of Vellana.
And she could not wait to be queen.
* * *
It was love at first sight.
He had known from the moment his eyes connected with hers that he’d never love another.
She was tall and slim, with deeply tanned skin that glowed as if she’d swallowed the sun, and hair the color of freshly fallen snow.
He thought he’d known what to expect from a fae. He’d combed the library for books about them, studied the legends of their magic and beauty. But all the research in the world couldn’t have prepared him for the sight of her.
Fifteen was too young to think of marriage. Suddenly, the four years he’d have to wait for her to move to the castle felt like a lifetime.
Lady RoisinNewland.
Her name was a song, more melodic than any he’d heard.
Prince Caiman, second son of King Bedwyr of Vellana, loved Lady Roisin Newland.
And he dreaded the day she would become his brother’s wife.
1
ROISIN
Love’s madnesshad consumed me for four tedious years.
I kept expecting the obsession to wane but every morning I woke it grew stronger, as if fed by the stars and moon. And now that my mother and I had relocated to the castle in Vellana, the wait for my wedding day had become as unbearable as the summer sun beating down on my brow.
Streams of water spurted from the mouths of six golden lions, splashing into a deep pool of lily pads and orange fish. The scent of rose petals and stagnant water clung to the humid air. With my bare toes sinking deeper into the soft grass, I dipped my fingers into the pond, watching more ripples spread across the surface.If I kept still, the fish would grow used to my presence and I could snag one right out of the water.
I reminded myself that future queens did not catch fish with their bare hands—at least not in Vellana. Here, they sat in gardens looking as pretty as the flowers surrounding them.
“I’m bored,” my lady-in-waiting, Lowri, whined, plucking another daisy from the pile and threading it through my silver hair. A ring of tiny white flowers already crowned Lowri’s long violet locks, the tips of her pointed ears peeking through.
Me too, I wanted to say.
Instead, I kept my thoughts to myself.
Behind Lowri, Lord Kerrington took a swig from the bottle of wine leftover from our picnic. The basket used for sandwiches and cakes lay empty next to our gilded plates. “Why didn’t you say so?” he crooned, wiping his mouth with his shirtsleeve, smearing red across the white material. “I happen to know the cure for boredom.”