When my senior sister brought a man to the Conservatory and told me he was mine to court, I thought she was offering me a chance. I had spent five years earning nothing but a public score of zero, too frightened to ask anyone to choose me. But Elias Vale had not come to Brackenmere to be anyone's prize. He needed shelter, I needed a way to prove I could make a vow, and the rules said a bond counted only if both people chose it freely. As we practiced the small courtesies that could lead to something larger, I began to wonder whether my sister had given me a chance at love or placed me in the path of a bargain she had already made. When the Conservatory's leaders demanded Elias's future in exchange for our home, I would have to decide what mattered more than the score I had spent five years chasing. And if I finally found the courage to ask him to stay, would I be asking for him—or asking him to save me?