Orlando's claim to the barony runs through Adelaide alone, and she takes her payment on their wedding night. She leads him out of the torchlit records room into the hidden passage. What their alliance requires, she claims with her own hand, over the jagged scar on his ribs and lower.

She holds him at the edge in the dark and keeps him there as long as it suits her. His shoulders roll under the strain and she does not relent, turning his need into the weapon that binds their titles together. Every denial tests the pride he carried off the battlefield, and the solstice deadline presses closer with each night she leaves him wanting. Orlando must decide whether yielding to her will strengthen their rule or expose the weakness that dooms them both. She tells him he will not be released tonight.