There was something about her.
Perhaps it was the way she held her ground after being caught stealing from him, or perhaps it had been the way her eyes seemed to stare into his very soul.
Cal didn't know what it was that made her so special, so different, from anyone he'd ever met.
For a moment he forgot that he was a prince, forgot that his blood was Silver, forgot that this girl was a Red. There was something about her that he just couldn't put his finger on.
Mare Barrow from the Slits. A girl that should mean nothing to a prince like him.
He didn't know why he did it. Perhaps she was just that pretty, just that memorable, made him feel that warm. Maybe that's why he got her hired at the palace.
But if he were honest with himself, he already knew.
She was a girl worth fighting for. A girl who was worth the risks.
And he would never be able to have her, but he knew that he would choose her.
He would always want to choose her.