I slid the ring onto the finger of my right hand.
It fit. Of course it fit. I do not know why I was surprised by that.
Kael let out a breath that was almost a laugh. "Of course it fits," he said softly. "It was made for you. Five hundred years ago, and it was only ever waiting."
I looked down at the silver on my hand. It was very light. It felt very heavy. In eighteen years no one had ever given me anything that was mine and not a thing I was expected to earn or repay. My father gave gifts the way he gave everything, with a ledger open behind his eyes. Damon had never given me anything at all, not even the truth. And here was a king who had kept a ring ready for five centuries, for a woman he had never met, simply because he believed she would be worth the waiting.
"Kael," I said. "Whe
