The familiar balcony of Tauram's cottage reappeared around him and Esmera. Its blue railing held the rest of the land and the pain and betrayal it contained at a distance.

There was a safety in this place that Esmera hadn't really appreciated until she left it that night and saw for herself the venom and the danger hidden beneath the surface of the picturesque palace.

She and Tauram solidified into visibility, and for the first time since they left the balcony, she could breathe easy. Even Jammas seemed to exhale relief where he nested in her hair.

At least until Lundas growled at their feet, and the flutter of a pair of enormous wings told Esmera they had been followed home.

Queen Ghallia materialised below her moth in all her unearthly splendour. Her wide eyes might've been dazzling as they snapped to Tauram, but to Esmera, they seemed frightened.

"Tauram, I'm sorry." The queen strode across the balcony, her hand striking out like a viper as she reached for the prince's arm.

Tauram only stepped back, folding his arms over his chest while Esmera remained at his side, as invisible to the queen as if she was masked by Tauram's magic.

The man who had stared at Queen Ghallia so love-struck the first night he returned to Milatanur would've mellowed at her advance instantly, but Tauram was no longer that man. He was one broken and betrayed, one made older and wiser by the pain of the past few days.

Tauram's dark eyes blazed. "Are you sorry that you destroyed my life and my family or sorry that I found out about it?"

Queen Ghallia sucked in a breath but said nothing even as her shapely mouth trembled. That was enough of an answer. Tauram's face hardened, turned as jagged as the mountain peaks surrounding them like a cruel king's pointed crown. "Get out." He turned away from the woman who had taken his heart and crushed it at her heel instead of doing the compassionate thing and returning it to him.

"Tauram, I need you to work with me to overthrow Ruagu." Queen Ghallia grabbed his arm, forcing him to face her.

He was a thundercloud when he turned, moments away from erupting in storm and lightning but straining to contain it.

"Please, let's leave the past in the past," said Queen Ghallia softly, looking up at him in that way that must've made him give up his kingdom and her family for her once.

It did nothing of the sort this time.

Tauram only glared at her, his jaw tighter than Esmera had ever seen it. "The only way to do that would be to unhear everything you just said. I'm not the fool I was then."

Something sparked in his eyes. Queen Ghallia wisely took a step back, withdrawing her hand out of range should he finally explode. It rested on the fabric draping over her shoulder, its elegant pleats like ripples of water in the moonlight.

"Why do you want to overthrow Ruagu anyway? I thought you loved him." Tauram's voice broke on the word.

Esmera folded her hands around his. She, like him, had heard and understood Ghallia's confession to her invisible eavesdroppers, but she still couldn't believe it.

Part of her hoped Ghallia would say it was Ruagu she was lying to, not Tauram, but the other part knew that the cruelty in her words to her husband was too genuine to be feigned.

Queen Ghallia sighed, looking at the golden tiger's head carved on the door handle behind Esmera instead of the eyes of the man she betrayed. "I do love Ruagu, but it's complicated."

In Esmera's hand, Tauram's tensed. "It's because of my sister, isn't it?"

Queen Ghallia scoffed. "Don't flatter yourself. I'm the queen of an entire kingdom, not an insecure teenager."

"I guess that must be why you tried to make your husband jealous by mentioning the man you were formerly betrothed to," Esmera couldn't resist snapping out.

Queen Ghallia's intentions had been so transparent, but she dared to glare at Esmera as if she was the liar. "There is much more to this than Kerani."

"Like what?" Tauram's voice went so low it was almost a growl.

Before Queen Ghallia could answer, a voice sounded from the direction of the cottage.

"What is going on here?" Shadows rolled over the tiger face on the door handle as Belaren opened the glass door and strolled out onto the balcony, wearing the wind like a scarf. It tossed his hair about his shoulders. He might've looked like a model for a shampoo advert if it wasn't for his eyes narrowed in suspicion and his muscles taut while his hands pressed against his sides.

Anjarah walked out after him, slouching in his shadow as if she didn't want the conflict before her to reach her. Esmera wished she could avoid it too, but she had promised that she was in this with Tauram, and she wasn't Ghallia. She wouldn't go back on her promises, no matter what "this" was.

"Ghallia was just reminding us why she so badly wants to destroy the man she loves." Tauram turned back to the queen, awaiting her answer while his eyes glinted like ice.

Queen Ghallia bristled, straightening to her full height. "It's for the reason I said. It's for the kingdom."

Tauram narrowed his eyes. "That's not what you said. You said it was for your children, so that they wouldn't grow up in a wasteland."

Belaren nodded his agreement. Like Esmera, he had been there when Queen Ghallia stated her case beside the goddess Jilhari. Anjarah merely looked between them, open-mouthed, while Samier peered out at the tense scene from behind her legs.

The queen's eyes went wide as if she was just remembering the lie nobody else would forget. She had sounded so earnest, so honest when she misrepresented her intentions now and then.

Tauram's face hardened, sharpened like stalactites poised to impale the unfortunate person passing below it. "I know you, Ghallia. I know Kerani would've gotten under your skin even if I hadn't heard it for myself."

The queen held his gaze for a moment, her beautiful eyes sparkling with starlight and tears. Esmera might've pitied her if she wasn't so sure those tears were for herself, for her shame, for how her decisions had hurt her but not how they had harmed others.

"I would've never hurt you as he did." Tauram's voice broke. He took a trembling breath. "I loved you more than anyone else in this world, once, but if I ever hear that you've punished my sister for your mistakes again, I will bury you in the grave beside the one I'm digging for your husband." His eyes were sharp and dark and terrifying.

Esmera found herself shrinking away from him even though she knew his fury wasn't for her. She had seen vicious anger like this before, felt its sting against her skin.

"Now leave, and don't come here ever again." Tauram gave Queen Ghallia no time to reply before he turned on his heel and headed towards the door.

Samier scuttled to safety as Tauram stormed past Anjarah without looking back.

"Tauram—" Queen Ghallia started after him, but Esmera stepped between them. She hadn't been able to help Tauram then, but she was here for him now.

"Leave him. I think you've done enough." Her voice didn't sound like it belonged to her. She had never imagined she'd dare to command a queen, but Milatanur was unlocking parts of her she hadn't known existed because she stood firm even when Queen Ghallia gave her the type of look she had given the slimy, creepy-crawly familiars she had seen that day she and Tauram went to SUAF.

Tauram stopped but didn't turn back. His trembling fists balled at his sides. As beautiful as his hands were, Esmera didn't doubt the destruction they could cause if he was pushed to that point.

"It's best if you leave." Belaren stepped next to Esmera, forming a wall with their shoulders that shielded their friend from any other projectile this woman would send his way.

Even so, Queen Ghallia dared to call over it. "Tauram..." she said softly. "For what it's worth, I'm sorry for breaking your heart."

She waited for a few awkward seconds that felt longer than they were.

When Tauram made no reply, the queen tutted to her moth. It hovered at her hip where King Ruagu had been holding her to his side just moments ago, then rose above her head. They both disappeared, but they had altered the night and all the lives around them.

Tauram still stood in front of the glass doors leading inside, his back to his friends and his hand curving over the carved tiger's head on the knob.

Esmera hurried over to him, taking his hand. "Tauram, are you all right?" She frowned up at him.

He turned back to face her, his eyes already betraying the lie he was about to tell. "I'm fine. Get some rest." With a wobbly smile, Tauram eased his hand out of her grip. He touched her cheek before opening the double glass doors and striding through them without looking back with Lundas bounding at his heels.

Esmera didn't think Tauram was fine, but he clearly didn't want to talk about it, not to her, at least. Even so, she stood in the moonlight looking after him with half a mind to follow him. Belaren must've sensed that because his hand came to rest on her shoulder.

"It's best not to speak to him when he's like this. Trust me, I know." He gave her a small, wry smile.

Esmera could only imagine the number of outbursts and sulking moments he must've witnessed in the decade he had lived with Tauram. The prince was wonderful and kind and funny, but he was only human, with human emotions and flaws.

"I do trust you, Belaren." Esmera sighed as she watched the shadow Tauram had turned into move along the dark passage to the stairs that would lead up to his room, where she lost sight of him. "It's just... I wish I could help him."

He had helped her by lending her his coat when she was wet and cold on her birthday, by guiding her when she had arrived in this world confused and overwhelmed, by proving her wrong when she had believed love and kindness were theoretical concepts that didn't exist in the world. There had to be something more she could do for him, but what?

"I think all he needs is a little time." Anjarah's gaze followed Esmera's to the space where she had last glimpsed Tauram. "He loved Ghallia very deeply for many years. Finding out she isn't the girl he thought she was, that she hurt Kerani..." Anjarah clucked her sympathy. At her feet, Samier gave a mournful whistle.

Esmera gave the other woman a sideways look. It was impressive how much of the story she had figured out despite only seeing a few pages of it unfold on this balcony.

Then again, Ghallia and Kerani weren't the strangers to Anjarah that they were to Esmera. She probably knew them as well as she knew Tauram and Belaren, well enough not to be surprised by their actions.

"I don't blame Tauram for being heartbroken," Anjarah said softly, looking back at Esmera once she saw that their friend had disappeared from view.

They stared at the cottage as if hoping to summon Tauram out of his devastation. From the silence between them, Esmera's assumed they too were mulling over everything they heard and felt until Anjarah said, "We should be getting back to bed."

Belaren took her hand. "I agree."

Esmera hid her yawn behind her hand, but there was no denying that was one of the most sensible suggestions she had heard all night.

She turned away from the couple beside her, watching Tauram's window until a faint light glowed from within it, telling her that he had arrived in his room.

"Will you be okay, Esmera?"

She turned to Belaren, eyes wide and startled.

She wasn't the one whose heart was broken, whose memory of his past had been destroyed, who'd had the traumas and tragedies of ten years heaped upon him on one night, but she appreciated that Belaren cared enough to ask her that.

"I will be." She forced a smile despite her inner being that ached on Tauram's behalf and turned to go into her room even though her being yearned to reach out to him.

It felt wrong to leave him alone on a night like this, but she was afraid to join him in case his anger should spill out of him and drown her.

It was irrational, she knew. Tauram wouldn't hurt her, but she had thought the same thing of Stephan once, and he had sent her to the hospital multiple times, nearly killing her on the last instance. Maybe it was safest for her to give Tauram some space.

Hardly aware of what her hands were doing, Esmera locked her door behind her and closed her curtains on the cold, glittering night.

She slipped back into the skimpy nightdress she had worn when she met Tauram outside on the balcony only hours ago. It served to remind her of how different he had been when he told her that he liked her wearing that.

Would he ever be the same again?

Would he ever tease her about something stupid she did without thinking? Would he ever laugh with her? Would he ever paint his heart onto a canvas again, or would he lock it up just to keep it safe?

When Tauram threatened to kill Queen Ghallia, it seemed unlikely that he would ever again be the smirking prince who knew what to say to make Esmera flustered, but that was the man she was growing fond of. She needed him back. Milatanur needed him. So did Princess Kerani and her daughter.

Too tired to think any further, Esmera crawled under the covers. Jammas shook himself free of her curls and flew up to his actual nest.

She sighed, sinking into the warm, soft silence and welcoming the sleep lapping at her consciousness.

Muffled sobs echoed through the night, so soft that Esmera knew she was the only one in the house who could hear them.

She had never heard Tauram cry before, but she knew it was him. It could be no one else.

She tensed her body to keep from rising out of bed. She balled her covers in her fists so that she couldn't leave them. She winced, pressing a pillow over her ears to drown out the heartbroken sobs. Even so, they vibrated through her until she felt their pain as if they were her own.

Tauram had a lot of grief, and if he wanted to work through it on his own, Esmera would leave him to it. Besides, what could she do? Wanting to make it better was one thing, but actually doing that was something else. Saying the wrong thing, despite her good intentions, could push Tauram off the edge of the precipice he stood at, could lead him to strike out at her even though she wasn't the one who had hurt him. She had seen it before, how fury ran amok when it was unbridled, and nothing, not love, not promises made in calmer moods, had ever protected her from it.

Within moments, the sobs had escalated to a volume that was impossible to ignore. Esmera's face contorted with Tauram's agony as she pressed it into the bed.

She flung the pillow aside and sat up. She was going to Tauram. She was going to do whatever it took to make this better for him, even if all she could do was croon her condolences while he cried. It was better than him enduring this grief, these burdens, alone.

She knew that because she remembered all the nights she had cried herself to sleep, wishing she had someone to hold her and tell her everything would be okay in the end.