Kelsey POV

It had been five days since Theodore rode out to the northern border with his warriors.

Every morning, I woke up in his huge bed, looking at the empty space beside me. I would stare at the gold ring he gave me, slipping it up and down my thumb just to remind myself that this was real.

I used his ring every single day. I went down to the storehouses, showed the guards the mark on the gold, and made sure the villagers whose homes burned in the fire got enough wheat and barley to eat.

For the first time in my life, people did not look at...