“I don’t doubt that Tua has connections; I’ve seen it in the way he interacts with the people around him,” I say more gently. “But he isnotthe king.Youare. I would also argue that the way he is doing things isn’t exactlyworking. So, unless you’d like to abdicate the throne and justgiveit to him—or to yourcousin—I suggest you change your approach.”
“How do you know—” He interrupts himself with a shake of his head. “Jahlee.”
“Yes, your sister has a wonderful affinity for dropping nuggets of information at the most inconvenient of times.”
He snorts as his eyes roam my face, moving down my neck and then to my shoulder—where he winces. “You might want to heal that.” He gestures to where his teeth sunk into my skin, and my fingers lift to trail over the now tender skin there.
Turning, I step towards the mirror and angle my body so that the light of a flame gem glows over the mark. The skin isn’t broken, but it will take a few days to completely heal. Like with the wounds I sustained during the rebel attack, I’ll have to work to hide this mark until it is gone. He watches me intently, likely waiting to see the flare of my magic. I don’t blame him, I would be curious as well if I had sailed across the ocean and risked being attacked by the sirens to get a mage with raw power. I try to keep my heart rate even, knowing that his ears are sensitive enough to pick up any changes. His eyebrow arches, the question so obvious that for a moment I feel panic begin to creep in.No. No. I need a distraction, and finally, I think of one.
“Kai, I’d like to contact my family and let them know I am well. Can I speak with them through the Mirror?” I step towards the door, intent on leading him to the mirror in the experiment room, when his hand gently clasps around mine.
His eyes are dark now, the earthy brown taking back over so only small flecks of gold remain. Kai studies me again, and for the first time since my childhood, I fight the urge to shrivel under a male’s inspection. My heart leaps in my throat, the weight of my deceit and of what we just did holding it there as I force an inhale. “Of course you can contact your family.”
I let loose a small sigh, tugging on his hand to leave the dining space, but he squeezes my fingers once more. Staring up at him in question, I watch as his smirk grows and he gestures with his chin behind me. Letting go of my hand, he walks to the mirror propped in the corner, and I watch in mild horror as the surface of the glass ripples when he’s close enough.
“Are you telling me that you fucked me with your fingers in front of the mirror I’m supposed to use to talk with myfamily?”
His answering grin is sinfully devious as he says my father’s name, and the Mirror starts to turn cloudy.
Chapter Forty-Five: Bahira
I shouldn’t have beensurprised when Jahlee showed up at barely past sunrise, knocking at my door and asking to spar. I should have been evenlesssurprised that when she brought me out to the training yard at the back of the palace, Kai was already there. He was shirtless and gleaming with sweat under the morning sun as he sparred with eight other males at the same time, expertly fighting them off. Jahlee had caught me staring at her brother and seemed inclined to tease me about it every ten minutes.
The sparring had been a welcome distraction after what Kai and I had done to each other, but I still found myself tightly wound at the memories. When one of the males training with Kai took it upon himself to touch my spear where it was lying in the grass near me andthenproceeded to taunt me with it, I had made an example of him. He had offered to give the spear back if I got on my knees for it. In turn, I kicked him in the balls and sent my elbow into his nose. I received a thumbs up in approval from Jahlee and a look of indifference from Kai before I left the training yard to shower and come to the workroom.
Kai finds me here a few hours later, hunched over my magnifier with my brow furrowed in concentration. And confusion. I’ve been studying the leaves brought from home, and the once vibrant red organelles that were attached to them have since shriveled into husks compared to the fullness they once held. Even the leaves, though not yet showing any signs of decay, have stopped their growth. Like they’ve hit some sort of wall and cannot grow past it.
“Am I interrupting?” he asks, knowing damn well that he is.
With a sigh, I sit back in my chair and observe him. A dark green tunic, the sleeves short and cuffed at his biceps, hugs his defined chest, and black trousers tucked into boots simplify his look. He’s infuriatingly handsome, and I subconsciously trace my bottom lip with my tongue at the memory of him in my mouth.
“If you’ve come to reprimand me over what happened in the training yard, I’m afraid you’ll be sorely disappointed. I have no regrets.”
Kai smirks as he closes the door behind him and then strides to the opposite side of the table from me, his arms crossing over his chest. “Why would I reprimand you for defending yourself?”
I snort and stand from the chair so I don’t have to crane my neck as harshly to hold his eye contact. “Defending myself is probably the least of what I was doing with him.”
“I’m aware,” he replies, his voice dropping deeper. “Everyone on that field was aware that you were just toying with him.” His gaze roams over my face before moving down my body, like he’s savoring what curves he can see with my clothing on. My thighs ache to squeeze together as he openly devours me.
“It didn’t make you angry? Metoyingwith one of your men?”
“On the contrary. It made me eager to see how you’d get all the males on that field to kneel before you.”
“Even you?”
He watches the way my teeth work my bottom lip. “You are unlike any female I’ve ever met.”
His words linger in the space between us, and I can’t tell if they are meant to be a compliment or not. “So then, why are you here?” I question, forcing his eyes back up to mine.
He leans closer, his hands bracing on the table until he’s right over the magnifier. “I—” Tilting his head to the side, he breathes in deeply. “Are you injured?” he asks, studying me in a more assessing manner.
“No?” I watch as his head cants to the side and he takes another sniff. “What is it?”
He doesn’t answer, instead looking down at the various glass bottles of leaves I have next to the magnifier. He starts picking them up one by one, sniffing them and then setting them back down so hard that the glass rings in the air as it meets the table.
“Careful,” I hiss, my patience thin as I watch him reach for another. His fingers wrap around the last jar as he holds it to his nose longer than any of the others before he looks at me. “What?”
“There is blood in this,” he says, handing it to me.
