“That one is both saint and sinner.” Emma catches me watching him and nudges me with her elbow. “He’s got the devil’s tongue but an angel’s heart.”
Truer words…
“I wish he’d direct his scowl elsewhere,” I mutter.
She shakes her head as we round the corner of the keep, out of Wren’s line of sight. “Scowl? Oh, Rapunzel, I wish a man would look at me the way Wren does you.”
I’ve no idea what Emma sees. “Wren hates me.”
“That’s what you believe?” Why does Emma sound amused?
“That’s what I know.”
“Rapunzel, you have much to learn about the nature of people,” she drawls.
I skid to a stop inside the hall, with Emma grabbing the basket from me and continuing ahead as I contemplate her remark. Faded tapestries of landscapes decorate the walls. The cozy sitting area doesn’t seem as if it gets much use. The massive table, set in the center of the room, is as ancient and battled as the castle, and I wonder how many meals and conversations took place around it before this holding went to ruin.
Emma glances at me over her shoulder, a smile stretched across her pretty mouth and a mischievous sparkle in her eyes. I’m about to catch up to her, but Wren startles me by striding close beside me.
“She’s right.”
I frown at his gruff remark. “Pardon?”
“You have much to learn.”
I toss up my hands and release a loud sigh. “Obviously. I spent the whole of my life moldering in a tower.”
Wren, still holding those bloody pheasants, is stunningly untamed—and terribly Intimidating. I miss him, the Wren I fell in love with years ago. Because now, he feels a world away from me. Myinactioncontributed to the destruction of the beautiful carefree boy I fell in love with and replaced him with this cold and callous man.
“Emma said you intend to kill John. Is this true?”
His dark eyes, sizzling with anticipation of spilling royal blood, slice into me, and, for a moment, I fear he’ll walk away. Leave me guessing. But he shocks me by growling, “Yes.”
Oh.
Well.
“I see.” I wring my hands as a riot of possibilities and fears run wild through my mind.
“Do you?” He snarls in my face. “And what do you think you see, Rapunzel?”
“A determined man with a dangerous obsession. Tell me, Wren, how do I factor in this plan?”
Wren lets out a nasty laugh and moves away, allowing me the space I need to breathe without inhaling the intoxicating scent of him. Still, he seems to take up all the space in the cavernous hall. The heat emanating from him does more to chase out the damp of the stone walls than the fire that blazes in the massive hearth across the chamber.
“It’s simple, Rapunzel.” Wren kicks up a brow and flicks his gaze over me as if I’m nothing more than an afterthought. “John wants you. As long as I have you, I hold all the power.”
“So, I am your pawn?”
“You thought you had more value?”
Don’t you dare cry.
I whip that around in my mind even as tears sting my eyes. “And when this war with the king is finished? What happens to me after, or did you not think that far ahead?”
“Oh, I thought ahead.” Disgust laces his words. “Trust me, I thought long and hard and decided that after I murder John, I’m going to cut your fucking hair and make you watch while I burn every goddamn strand.”
Those tears spill from my eyes to river down my cheeks. “I hope you do, and once the deed is done, I pray you find peace.”
