He said it with outrage, like she was an idiot, but she kept her chin high.
“Because you wouldn’t have left me,” she said.
A moment of silence stood between them. And for that second, they just stared each other down. Finally, he shook his head. “That person—that person you loved doesn’t exist.”
“You’re wrong,” she said.
He glared at her. “I would think I would know myself better thanyou do.”
She shook her head. “Not when so much is missing.” She stepped toward him. “You made me forget my memories. Our entire story. A year’s worth of love...gone. You thought it would save me.” He frowned, taking the information in. She took another step. “I hated you. I was atwarwith you. Then I remembered. I know what it’s like to forget.” Another step. “You can keep telling me that I don’t know you, or that you could never love someone like me, but the proof of your love is right against my pulse.”
Gaze never leaving his, she slowly ran her hand up her stomach. Up her chest. Grim traced her movements with unrelenting focus. She wasn’t sure if he was breathing. Her fingers slowly made their way up her collarbones to her throat. They settled around the diamond. She touched the smooth stone, and Grim shivered, like he could feel it. Maybe he could.
“This is proof that I’m yours.” He went very still at her words. She took a final step toward him. “And you’re mine.”
“I belong to no one,” he spat.
“Are you sure?” she asked. “Cronan seems to think you belong to him.”
Grim gave her a withering look, but she knew the comment had gotten under his skin when he reached over, fast as lightning, and pulled her toward him by the diamond. She gasped as she stumbled forward, stopping herself just short of his chest.
“Maybe I just want this stone for myself,” he hissed, right in her face. “Maybe I’ll kill you right now.”
Isla did not retreat. “You can try, but our lives are bound,” she said. She smirked at the look of disbelief that passed across his face. “I’m not lying. You gave your life for me. To save me. If I die, you die.”
He looked her up and down with disgust. “Of all the things you’ve tried to convince me of, I think this one is the most laughable.” He scoffed. “I would never tie my existence to someone else’s. Least of all someone as insignificant as you.”
He released the diamond, and her, and turned to keep walking through the dungeons.
Enough. She knew her husband could be a bastard, but he was really making it hard to love him.
When she didn’t immediately follow, he stopped. His shoulders were rigid. He whirled around.
“I can see myself to my cell,” she said.
His hands twitched before settling into fists. “Forgive me if I don’t actually trust you to do that.”
She just shrugged. “The knights will get me then.” She waved him off. “Go back to dinner. I’m sure your ancestor misses you.”
A vein in his neck became visible. She leaned against the wall and stared at him, like she had all the time in the world to watch his anger build.
“You are an idiotic, irritating pain in myass,” he spat.
She wasn’t affected by his insults. “I’ve heard it all before. From you, in fact.”
His lip curled into a snarl. “Do you ever learn? Do you ever stop?”
“I guess not. Do you?”
His hands were shaking by his sides, in utter fury. It looked like he was trying very hard not to rip the hallway apart with his shadows. “I’m going to portal you. Is that what you prefer?”
She pushed off the wall and strode past him. “Using your powers to solve problems? How veryyou.”
“What is that supposed to mean?” he demanded.
She just kept walking ahead of him. “You always say people are defined by who they are without their powers. But you love to use them, don’t you?”
She could feel him glaring at her back. The next thing she knew, she was against the wall again. But this time, her head was noticeably cushioned by his shadows. They caressed her skin likethey remembered her.
