Your face brings her back to her youth. Kory can’t help but stare.

“I thought you died,” she says. You’d been betrothed to her when she was still just a princess on Tamaran. Then the Dominators attacked, her family slaughtered, and she’d lost you, too. “How are you here? Why are you—?”

She doesn’t reach out for you, like she’s scared you’re not real. How long has it been since she’s remembered the exact color for your eyes? Back then, it’d only been puppy love.