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Eun Sook needn’t have worried.  Sook Myeong awoke before nightfall from her brief nap and quickly exited the prince’s bed.  Before her brother could disturb their slumber.  She discovered that Jong Su had also taken advantage of the moment to catch a few minutes of sleep.  As she settled into her chair once more, his sister looked up at her.

“Your highness, please go to your bed.  I will keep an eye on my brother until the night nurses come in.  He’ll be all right.  And you need some good rest.”

Sook Myeong glanced longingly at his bed.  She’d gotten some good rest…twice…in that bed.  She wished she could marry him tonight.  But such an action didn’t seem very feasible.  The man was still seriously wounded.  She needed to possess some patience and bide her time.  Soon enough, he would be well, and they could discuss a wedding then.

She heaved a deep sigh.  “You are right, of course.  I just find it so hard to leave him.  What if he worsens in the middle of the night?”

Eun Sook stared at her.  “I think that you didn’t worry about such things before you met my brother.”

Sook Myeong cocked on elegant eyebrow at her.  “Why would you say that?”

“By all accounts, you used to be quite…frosty,” Eun Sook chose her words carefully.

“It’s true.  Your brother has done great damage to my walls.  The man is a master.”

Eun Sook quirked a pale eyebrow.  “A master…what?”

“Hmm.  That’s a good question.”  She was talking too much.  She never used to talk too much.

Her shields were slipping.  Even around other people now.  This whole situation was making her decidedly uneasy.  Just because she’d allowed one man into her heart didn’t mean that she should trust everybody around her.  Eun Sook might be her sister-in-law now, but that didn’t mean that they had to be confidants.    After all, what did Jin Heung really know of the girl who had been raised a pauper? 

And, if Sook Myeong did marry Jong Su, then she would be leaving Silla, her brother, and his wife behind.  Trading her homeland for distant Goguryeo.  Such contemplation would have made her uneasy.  Except that she would be facing it all with Jong Su by her side.  And it was undeniable….

The man gave her a rare courage.

She hardly recognized the fearsome woman whom she’d been when she’d faced off with the crown prince of Baekje.  The man’s heartless insolence had infuriated her.  And she had instinctively known that he would see timidity as weakness.  And boldness as strength.  So she had unleashed herself upon him, roaring like a lion.

But now, returned to her home, sealed safely within the palace walls, her defenses had begun to crumble. Her mother’s death had caused some of those fortifications to fall to the ground.  But, mostly, it had been Jong Su’s dogged pursuit of her heart that had shaken the foundations of all which she’d once held dear.  Under his influence, she had begun to value something completely different from that which she’d been raised to defend.

He had also caused the old echoes to arise.  The ancient longings of her young heart.  Reminding her of her own childish dreams.  Only, he hadn’t just recalled them to her memory; he had begun to make her believe that perhaps those fairy tales had been attainable.  Or were, in fact, now within reach.

That love really could conquer all.  Even her fears.

Where desperation had once lent her boldness, the steadfastness of Jong Su’s devotion seemed to be making her fearless.  Except in one area…

He was simply a mortal man.

Vulnerable to the vagaries of fate. 

What if something happened to steal him from her? 

From where would she gain her strength then?