Lily’s eyes opened several hours later, and she was on the floor in the inner chambers, where Elliott had left her after choking her until she went unconscious hours ago. She helped herself up to sit down and pulled her legs together, laying her head on them. She didn’t want to think about anything, but she blamed herself for ending up in this situation.

When he returned over a moon ago to take her from the east to the capital, she asked him why they were moving, and he told her because he was the new king of the kingdom. He told her his cousins had died at sea, and...