Ensnared by the Shadow King by Lola Glass

We could stop by the castle one day, and she could trim the ends of yours, if you’d like. He was only working on one side of my head, but when he got to the ends of it, he fished a hair tie from his pocket and pulled it out to finish off the braid. His fingers moved rapidly but gently as he added bits of hair, moving down my head as he went. But instead, he deftly gathered a small bit of hair from the top of my head, and parted it into three. I assumed his braid would start at the base of my neck, like the ones Akari had taught me.

Though my pride disagreed, I reluctantly nodded, turning my back to him. Or at least to make it easier for me to learn. “We can buy some fabric in the market, so you can practice more easily. “I can do it, if you’ll let me,” Namir offered, leaning up against a tree. Huffing, I stopped walking and reached up to the nearest tree, grabbing a long, thin leaf as the braid unraveled itself without me holding it together.

It turned out strange-looking, and loose, and I didn’t have anything to wrap around the end-dammit. My fingers lifted to my hair, and I struggled to wrestle the strands into a braid while also walking. He tucked it into his pants’ pocket-damned reasonable men’s clothing. I slowly peeled my fingers off the comb, and then handed it to the king. And I wasn’t chained anymore, despite my struggle with my emotions and everything else.

Ensnared by the Shadow King by Lola Glass