Maybe love was superstition, a prayer we said to keep the truth of loneliness at bay.

I will strip away all that you know, all that you love, until you have no shelter but mine.

Why waste my anger on you when the fault is mine? I should have anticipated another betrayal from you, one more mad grasp at some kind of childish ideal. But I seem to be a victim of my own wishes where you are concerned.” His expression hardened. “What have you come here for, Alina?”

I answered him honestly. “I wanted to see you.”

I caught the briefest glimpse of surprise before his face shuttered again. “There are two thrones on that dais. You could see me any time you liked.

Hope was tricky like water. Somehow it always found a way in.

I'm the Sun Summoner. It gets dark when I say it does.

Why won’t you leave me alone?” I whispered one night as he hovered behind me while I tried to work at my desk.

Long minutes passed. I didn’t think he would answer. I even had time to hope he might have gone, until I felt his hand on my shoulder.

“Then I’d be alone, too," he said, and he stayed the whole night through, till the lamps burned down to nothing.