I pulled myself from his arm and stepped back from him. “I already told you. We’re only friends.”

“You’re saying you don’t want to kiss me, then?” Kennet asked with raised eyebrows. I turned away, walking toward the love seat. “Why not? You should at least offer me a reason.”

For one thing, I didn’t trust him. Not that I ever really had, but now with his new appointment as ruler of the Skojare and his bizarre drunken celebration with the King and Queen, I trusted him even less.

There was also the business of Ridley confessing his feelings for me, and the fact that I felt the same way, with the chance that something might be possible in the future—even the distant future. I didn’t want to muck it up by fooling around with a Prince, especially a Prince who was now acting as a King.

But the biggest reason was that I simply didn’t feel that way about Kennet. I liked him well enough, and he had been a good friend to me in Storvatten. But that didn’t mean I wanted to make out with him.

Not to mention all the other huge reasons why it was a bad idea: I could be demoted, fired, or even banished, and the risk of that was very high in Doldastam, since we actually had a functioning guard that would be able to catch us in the act.

“Well, you’re King, for one thing.” I turned to face him, offering the reason that seemed least likely to offend him. “Do you really wanna blow it all by messing around with some Kanin girl?”

“Technically, you’re not really Kanin,” Kennet corrected me, moving closer. “And you’re even technically royalty, since both your parents are. It’d be worth the risk.”

I stepped back from him. “You don’t even like me that much.”

Kennet bristled. “Don’t tell me how I feel.” He softened a little. “But I’d like to spend more time with you. You could come back to Storvatten with me.”

“For what?” I shook my head in disbelief. “What are you even doing here?”

“I came here to see you.” Kennet tried to touch my arm, but I pulled back from him.

“Bullshit.” I wasn’t buying any of it.

“I was sent here to help ensure peace between our tribes,” Kennet said wearily. “Without a true King right now, and with such a shitty guard, this would be the perfect time for someone to attack us. So I’m supposed to make sure the Kanin like us, so they can defend us if we need them to, and also so they don’t attack us themselves.”

I eyed him up, still not sure what to believe. “Who sent you?”

“Well, since I’m the acting ruler, I suppose you can say I sent myself.” He offered a small smile. “But everyone, including Marksinna Lisbet, thought it would be a good idea to make nice with you all. I gave Mina that necklace as a gesture of our goodwill.

“I did also think it would be fun to spend more time with you, but apparently I was wrong about that,” he added dryly.

“Sorry.” I relaxed and let my arms fall to my sides, trying not to look as suspicious as I felt. “You just seem a little too cavalier about everything.”

He rolled his eyes and went over to grab his drink from where he’d left it on a small side table. “You’re really great at knowing how I should act and how I should feel, Bryn.”

“How is Mikko?” I asked, switching from one touchy subject to another. I’d dropped the formal titles, since I had no idea if Mikko was even King anymore.

“I don’t know.” Kennet had his back to me as he took a drink, and I watched his shoulders rise and fall with heavy resignation. “He won’t let me see him.”

“Why not?”

“You’d have to ask him that yourself.” He swirled the alcohol in his glass around, watching it. “I do love him. I know a lot of people don’t believe that now, maybe you included, but he is my older brother. I don’t want to see him hurt.”

“I’m sure it’s hard for him,” I said gently, trying to offer Kennet a bit of comfort. “With everything that happened, and now with you being the King. Mikko is going through a very difficult time.”

“He never even wanted to be King,” Kennet muttered, still staring down at his glass. “I offered to take the crown in his place, but Mikko refused to go against Father’s decree.” He shook his head and took a long drink.

“When I left, Marksinna Lisbet told me she thought she’d be placed as acting monarch,” I told him.

“Did she?” Kennet laughed. “She is one crazy old bat.”

The sharpness of his words startled me, but I quickly recovered and asked, “What do you mean?”

“I’m next in line for the throne.” He looked at me like it should have been obvious. “If anything happens to Mikko, it goes to me. There’s no way that a Marksinna with no ties to our bloodline would ever be in charge, even for a moment.”

“Maybe it was just wishful thinking on her part,” I said. “She was just worried about Linnea’s safety.”

Kennet scoffed. “I can keep the kingdom safe.”

“Her biggest concern—and mine too, really—was continuing to allow Bayle Lundeen to remain in charge of the guard.”

“Then you can both rest at ease,” he smiled at me. “The first thing I did after being appointed was dismiss Bayle.”

“You fired him?” I asked, almost breathless in my relief.