“Which one is yours?” he asked, prepared to help her into whichever one she named.
Before he could, she pried her hand from his and set off toward the closest one alone. “They’re all mine.”
His prettiest Son, Kyn, raised his eyebrows and murmured with open admiration, “The other two are decoys.”
Sera offered Kyn a weak smile over her shoulder. “Precisely.”
Some dark beast snarled to life inside him at the sight of his wife smiling at his medic, though she seemed incapable of gifting him anything besides her scorn.Stupid. He was being stupid. She was free to smile at whomever she liked.
They were husband and wife on paper alone.
But there was still the matter of that kiss. The way she had demanded it. The way she had…clungto him.
The way she had burned him.
With a scowl, he hurried toward his kirei’s chosen carriage just as Sir Arkwright opened the door for her and helped her inside. He didn’t bother asking for permission, nor waiting for an invitation he knew would never come, before he followed.
Hauling himself up onto the bench opposite hers, he rested his glaive across his thighs and met her confused stare with a narrow-eyed glare of his own until she finally relented, breaking eye contact first.
Looking none too pleased, his pretty wife whispered to Sir Arkwright, “Let’s be off, then.”
The knight shut the carriage door with a firm snap. Leaving them alone together for the first time since that night on Nerina Reef when she had threatened him with her little dagger amongst the trees.
Without bothering to look his way, she softly asked, “What do you want?” just as the coach rumbled into motion.
He leaned forward and braced his arms against his knees, tracking the way her pulse fluttered at the hollow of her throat. “I want you to tell me what that was all about back there.”
Her pulse quickened. A hint of color crawled up her pale neck.
Fidgeting, his kirei toyed with her golden sun pendant and lied through her perfect teeth, “I don’t know what you mean.”
His one eye narrowed. “You know good and well what I mean.”
Her fingers stilled. She swallowed visibly. On the softest of whispers—so soft he could barely hear her—she asked, “Did you…did you hear the voice, too?”
Voice? What voice?
But that question died on his tongue the moment she looked at him, her eyes brimming with desperate hope and something else. Something that made his chest ache in a way he didn’t like.
Fear.
Something had his pretty wife spooked. His fingers twitched, ready to reach out to soothe her.Idiot. He wrapped both hands around the pole of his glaive before he could do something foolish and embarrass them both.
From its place coiled around her throat, his kirei’s usuru watched him with its beady little eyes. That was the unsettling thing about usuru—even his own Soot. They were just…always watching.
He ignored the beast and cautiously revealed, “I didn’t hear a voice, Sera.”
Her disappointment was immediate. Palpable. She looked away from him and pretended to stare out the window, though thecurtains were drawn against prying eyes as they rattled their way through the city streets. Whatever commotion had broken out in front of the cathedral was long gone. Silence was all that greeted him, both within the carriage and without.
Sera held her tongue. For once, she didn’t even correct him on the use of that nickname either. Something truly had her out of sorts.
He knew her well enough by now to understand that he should just leave it. He knew no good would come of pressing his luck further with her today. But he couldn’t help it.
Hehadto know.
“I was more referring to that kiss.”
“What about it?” she immediately countered, her gaze snapping back his way. Color flared on her cheeks. Defiance sparked in her eyes again, challenging him.
