PROLOGUE
Hearts can’t be stolen.
At least that’s what I used to think.
Until I met her.
By “her,” I meant the woman lying next to me, with hair of fire spilling across the snowy white pillowcase, tickling my collarbone. Lashes fluttering like a butterfly’s wings. Pink lips curved into the perfect bow. I held my breath, waiting for the moment Leesha’s mossy green eyes would open and find mine.
If her father discovered us together, he’d have my head. The threat of a lowly human farmer wielding a garden hoe was nothing compared to what would happen if my mother found out about the two of us.
“You’re meant for greatness, Rían. I’ve seen it.”
Witches and their “sight.” The Phantom Queen could keep her greatness. All I wanted was the angel sleeping next to me.
Sunlight leaked from beneath the closed door, glimmering like an iridescent bubble when it met the ward I’d created last night. My soundproof tost kept our even breaths and mingling heartbeats silent from passersby, ensuring no one would disturb us in our world of sheets and skin.
Leesha turned, raising her arms toward the headboard in a slow, languid stretch. Her shy smile left my heart ramming against my ribcage. If she wanted the world, I would give it to her. All she needed to do was ask.
“Happy birthday, Rían,” she said in a voice thick with sleep, her accent more lilting than humans from Airren’s eastern coast. Was it any wonder? Her family lived so close to the Tearmann border you could practically spit on the Forest from her front stoop.
Leesha’s short nail needled my side. “Did you hear me? I said happy birthday.”
Nineteen years in the face of eternity wasn’t anything to boast about. Still, if Leesha wished to celebrate the occasion, I’d start with nuzzling her neck and tasting the way her pulse hummed against my lips. “Thank you.”
The heat from her sigh ruffled my undoubtedly disheveled hair. The mahogany strands could do with a cut. A task that could wait until later. First, I had a woman to ravish.
“I need to get up,” Leesha murmured even as one long leg hitched around my hips, pressing me closer.
“Do you, now?”
“Mmmm hmmm. If I don’t help Mother with breakfast, I’ll be expected to help with dinner. And seeing as I have plans with a certain suitor . . .” Her weak protest melted into a soft moan the moment I shifted my hips in line with hers.
“Should I be jealous of this suitor?”I managed, already so hard I was fit to burst.
“He is quite handsome.”
“How handsome?”
Fingers threaded through my hair, tugging me forward. “The most handsome man I’ve ever met.”
“And?”
“And he has a heart of gold.”
I huffed a laugh. My heart was more likely to be made of soot than gold, but if she wanted to see the best in me, who was I to set her straight? “And?”
“And he is a prince.”
“A prince, you say? How can I ever hope to compete?”
She giggled, blinking up at me through hooded eyes. “Don’t worry. He’s also young and foolish.”
“Not as young as he was yesterday.”
“Rían . . .” She drew me closer, grinding her soft center against me. “We can’t . . .”
“No?” I urged my hips forward, answering her call.