His gaze narrowed.
“I have been honest with you this entire time. Can you say the same?” I pressed when he didn’t answer.
He approached, shoulders moving with each step, like a stalking panther, stopping just out of reach. His jaw set, features strong and regal. “You already know the answer. You just have not connected the dots.”
I sucked in a deep, steadying breath. “Why not help me then? Because right now, I am too tired to connect much of anything.” It was an effort just to stand without swaying.
His lip curved into a crooked smile at my words. “Sometimes, those who are the weakest are the greatest threat,” he stated, something he had already shared with me before.
My brows pulled together. “Non-conjurors are a threat to conjurors?”
Clause pivoted, his attention drifting towards the window, and he paced towards it in a few steps. The candlelight flickered, highlighting the sharp features of his profile. “My father was not a conjuror. It is the reason I had to spill his blood. Forced to use a blade, over and over.” A look of disgust curled his lip. “It is a filthy thing, taking life in such a way, staining my hands with someone so... undeserving.”
The shock of what he was saying settled over me.
“You are afraid of them.” My words were a whisper. The massive mystery of why the separation existed, explained by the Sidhe King’s fears. It made sense. Clause could take the life of a conjuror with a single touch, but those who had no gifts stood a chance against him, and he feared that.
Having so many conjurors in the Sidhe city overwhelmed me because I saw them as a great threat. Yet, it is those without gifts that threatened him. Conjurors were a shield he easilycontrolled. That meant those without gifts could become the blade that would be his undoing.
Clause turned to me so quickly; I flinched back. “I know my weaknesses, and I remove them,” he stated, voice cold and cunning. He stood before me, a pillar of strength, yet deep within he was afraid, like the rest of us. But he didn’t have to be.
I shook my head. “You do not have to live this way.” He was allowing his fears to control him. If only he gave those outside his city a chance, and treated them like his own, then they likely wouldn’t fight against him, would have no need to. They were an enemy of his own creation, and he was too nearsighted to see that.
He sighed, bringing a hand to rub his temples briefly before dropping it to his side. When his gaze met mine once more, it lost some of its edge. “You continue to believe this notion that you are safe, even with weakness flowing around you.” He shook his head. “You are blinded. It is not possible to be surrounded only by good. Trusting others is not enough. Fear is the only way to rule. You must have power over it. You must control the fear of others, and you must exterminate your own.”
He took a slow step, entering my space. Lifting his hand, his fingers brushed my cheek, warming it. The touch was so strangely intimate that it rendered me immobile. “You have been living in a fantasy and though it is beautiful, it is not real. I can clear the shadow of this illusion. I can bring your world into the light. If you want it.” His hand fell to his side, head tilting as if waiting for a reply.
“What do you mean?” A danger circled me, an uncertainty stalking me. It paced through the space, rubbing up against me before settling into a crouch, waiting to strike.
He stepped even closer, and with him, that dangerous sensation grew. “You need to decide what you want, Ariana. Do you want the truth?” A darkness misted over his eyes. “I must warn you, I take no pleasure in bringing you pain, but that is exactly what I will do, if that is what you need. I can free you from the shackles of this fantasy you live. I can show you your world for what it truly is.”
My throat closed up, a tremor running down my spine. “What truth?”
“Do you wish to know?” There was something captivating in the way he asked the question. Like it was a promise instead of a question.
“Yes,” I answered softly.
“Even if it may destroy a part of you?”
My heart skipped a beat. Why was this conversation having such an effect? Did I believe I lived in a world surrounded by lies? No. And yet, nervous energy vibrated under my skin.
“Yes,” I finally said, not understanding what exactly I agreed to.
He nodded, gaze briefly cast down in thought. “The day after tomorrow, we will not break our fast together. At noon, come to the throne room. Exactly at noon, no sooner. I will leave the door open for you, feel free to linger in the hall and listen in for as long as you wish. And if you choose to enter the room, you are welcome to do so.”
I swallowed, my head reeling. He seemed to sense my uncertainty and stepped even closer, his eyes softening with concern. Was it a concern for me or for something else?
“You are so beautiful.” His hand found my cheek once more. I should have stepped away, yet my feet remained planted firmly beneath me. “The purity of your soul, the curiosity you have with the world.”
I could no longer breathe right, causing the room to spin even more than before.
“It is your weakness, but it is also one of the things that has always drawn me to you.” His words were gentle and though I didn’t quite understand them, they did something to me. Warmth spreads through my chest at his proximity. At his touch. “If I have to help destroy that part of you for you to live on, then without hesitation, I will.” His gaze dipped to my lips. “I just want to taste you, once, with you still like this. With you surrounded in hope.”
No.
“Clause.” His name was hardly a whisper slipping past my lips. It was a warning. And instead of causing him to hesitate, it was as if I called him closer.
I did not get a chance to voice the rest of my words. Theplease don’t,that died in my throat.
