Chapter 6 What The Wolf Already Knew

• He found her in the herb garden at dusk, cutting sprigs of lavender for the King's evening tea, and he stood at the gate for a long moment simply watching the last light catch in her hair, gold and copper threading through the dark of it, before he made himself speak, because if he watched her much longer he was not sure he would be able to say any of what he had come to say.
• "Aria."
• She turned, a smile already forming at the sight of him, the smile that had, without his permission, become the best part of his day, every day, for weeks now. "My prince. Is something wrong?"