Naiadsskilled in incantation can make their vacouses act the way they normally would. Give them some level of flexibility, even while under a Naiad’s control.
My fingers dug into the roots of my hair.
Thaan had tried to corner Kye tonight, and Kye had refused to speak to him. Had Thaan planned toincantKye? My mouth went dry as I realized I knew the answer.
“You’re riding with Thaan tomorrow?” I asked, ignoring his question.
He let it go, as though he’d already found the answer easily enough in my avoidance. “Yes.”
“Where’s Winterlight?”
“It doesn’t matter.”
“Fine,” I spat through bared teeth. “How many days’ ride is it?”
Kye stared at me, thoughts churning in his gaze. I clenched my teeth against the cool air dancing over my skin, wishing I’d brought something—anything—easy to slip on.
His eyes crinkled as he read my thoughts. “I’ll give you something in a minute. When I'm through looking at you.”
“How many days’ ride is it?” I repeated, flustered. Hurt. Angry—with Thaan, with Selena.
With myself.
Kye’s lips pursed. “Eleven.”
Eleven days alone with Thaan. Unprotected.
My mind blazed as I searched my thoughts, seeking answers within myself. “Was it Thaan who advised you to take the role of Commander?”
What easier way to get rid of Kye, then to send him to his death after binding me to the kingdom with marriage, my contract to kill Hadrian securely in place, unending if I never became queen.
He crossed his arms, cold humor planted in the corners of his mouth, as though he’d amuse me for the sake of his own deluded triumph. “No. It would look that way, wouldn’t it? But I saw the letter myself. My uncle Marcus suggested it. He’s a second-born son as well, and he also served as commander to an army, twenty years ago. Granted, Calder wasn’t preparing for war then, but—” He shrugged, unbothered by whatever thought came to him.
I sat down heavily in the chair, hardly listening. “What do you need from me,” I said woodenly, “to get you through this night without killing me?”
He scoffed, hardly trusting me, and I flinched at the sound.
I couldn’t blame him for wanting me dead. I’d wanted the same for him.
He’d probably thought he was slowly going mad, with wider gaps in his memory than memory itself. Waking up to find me alive in the palace, living in the room across from his, when he’d thought me dead. Finding out we were engaged—that he’d attended the council meeting to request it.
I could hardly warn him against Thaan. Obviously, he already didn’t trust the Naiad, and any faith he’d had in me had died as we crossed the Juile Sea.
Plucking his shirt from off the floor, he tossed it to me. The fabric was thick and rich. His scent caved in on me as I thrust my arms through, pulling it down over my hips. Cocking his head from one side to the other, he crouched in front of the chair, securing rope around my ankle as he tethered me to its leg. His gaze carved into mine as he wrapped his fingers around my opposite ankle and slid it to the other chair leg, my thighs spreading slowly across the seat of the chair, though his shirt covered my lap fully.
Even after being doused in cold reality, something small and hot squirmed within me at the sight of him kneeling between my legs as I sat in a chair.
“I’ll let you out in the morning,” he said, eyes glittering as he tied the final knots over my wrists.
I settled into the seat, hardly caring. I was too thoroughly blindsided to know what else to do. I could hardly continue with my plan to have him kill himself. If I'd ever truly intended to.
Kye unrolled a fur blanket across my legs with the whip of an arm, then grasped the arm rests, dragging me close to the fire, directly in the line of sight from his side of the bed.
“Goodnight,wife,” he purred with every strain of hatred known to the realms of men.
Beaten, still reeling from shock, I didn’t have it in me to bite back a snappy retort. There was none. I was his wife—and he had every right to hate me for it.
“Goodnight,” I murmured.
