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Winter was panting, both frazzled and giddy with her success, as the dais ca inside her weakened her knees She had to slow to catch her breath

He was sitting with his back to the enormous sundial at the center of the dais, an instruhts Ropes bound his bare arainst his collarbone, pale hair hiding his face As Winter neared his across his chest and abdomen, scattered with dried blood There would bethe lash Self-inflicted, Levana had proclaimed the punishment, but everyone knew Jacin would be under the control of a thau self-inflicted about it

Aimery, she heard, had volunteered for the task He had probably relished every wound

Jacin raised his head as she reached the edge of the dais Their eyes clashed, and she was staring at a man who had been beaten and bound and mocked and tormented all day and for a moment she was sure he was broken Another one of the queen’s broken toys

But then one side of hisblue eyes, and he was as bright and welco his head back against the dial

With that, the terror from the past weeks slipped away He was alive He was home He was still Jacin

She pulled herself onto the dais "Do you have any idea hoorried I’ve been?" she said, crossing to hie, or if you’d been eaten by one of the queen’s soldiers It’s been driving "

He quirked an eyebrow at her

She scowled "Don’t comment on that"

"I wouldn’t dare" He rolled his shoulders as apped and puckered with the movement and his face contorted in pain, but it was brief

Pretending she hadn’t noticed, Winter sat cross-legged in front of hi to touch hied "Does it hurt veryat the bottom of the lake" His smile turned wry, lips chapped "They’ll ht Half a day and I’ll be good as new" He squinted "That’s assu ue where it is, thank you"

"No food Just a friendly face"

"Friendly" His gaze raked over her, his relaxed grin still in place "That’s an understate away to hide the three scars on her right cheek For years, Winter had assumed that when people stared at her, it was because the scars disgusted theurement in their world of perfection But then a usted, they were in awe She said the scarsto look at and somehow, odd as it was, even more beautiful Beautiful It was a word Winter had heard tossed around all her life A beautiful child, a beautiful girl, a beautiful young lady, so beautiful, too beautiful … and the stares that attended the word never ceased to make her want to don a veil like her stepmother’s and hide from the whispers

Jacin was the one person who couldShe couldn’t recall hi her any compliments, for that matter They were always hidden behind careless jokes that made her heart pound

"Don’t tease," she said, flustered at the way he looked at her, at the way he always looked at her

"Wasn’t teasing," he said, all nonchalance

In response, Winter reached out and punched hi his wounds But Jacin’s chuckle arht, Princess"

She reeled back the budding apology "It’s about tilanced past her, into the streets "Where’s your guard?"

"I left hi for a monster in my closet"

The sunshine so out alone If so to hurt me here, in the city? Everyone knoho I a what he wants and too drunk to control himself"