Lips pressed together, she looked away, though she quickly met his gaze again and shrugged. “Sorry to inform you that you waited up for nothing. Maybe consider the possibility before you break into my bedroom again and wait around like stalkers.”
Xavier scoffed, a vein in his temple pulsing.
He had more patience than anyone I’d ever met. I’d only seen him angry a handful of times, and every instance had been during training.
He understood Rummy in a way that most didn’t, cut her a lot of slack. But the way he looked at her just now? The anger in his eyes and the ticking of his jaw were so out of character.
He stood from the bed and crossed his arms over his chest. “You’re being a real bitch right now, Rum. You just spent hours with the guy.”
She shrugged. “So?”
“So?” He shook his head. “We’re in this together. We were tasked with handling this as a team. You learned something tonight, don’t fucking act like you didn’t. You’ve been keeping secrets since those damn Whispering Caves, and we’ve given you space to process and the opportunity to come to us, but I’m running out of patience. And time.”
Damn.
He stormed toward the door, but just as his hand landed on the knob, Rummy called out.
“Xavier, wait.” Her jaw flexed, like it pained her to give in.
He stopped but didn’t turn.
“I did discover one detail we should talk about.”
“Great.” He spun on his heel, but his friendly, flirty demeanor was long gone. “I’m all ears.”
She shifted on her feet, smoothing out the skirt of her black dress. She didn’t meet my eyes. She didn’t meet Xavier’s, either. “His magic is…concerning.”
“He showed you his magic?” I took a step closer. “What is it?”
“According to him, magic here is nothing like the magic in Vaehatis. It’s limitless, really. There are so many different kinds… Anyway.” She took a deep breath. “From what I gathered, his power is somehow connected to the dead.”
“Okay…” Xavier shuffled to my side, and the two of us faced Rummy, waiting for details. “And what’s that supposed to mean?”
She gritted her teeth. “I wanted to ask more, but I didn’t want to seem pushy. But it sounds like he has a strange connection to the dead. He didn’t go into much detail, so I’ll need time to learn more.”
The loose hold I had on my temper snapped. “You need time? You didn’t want to be pushy?” Fire burned in my veins, searing me from the inside out. “How can younotpush after what the healer said? And what was that about you being sent to him for a reason?”
She was hiding something.As fucking usual. She was feeding us breadcrumbs so we’d think she was telling the truth, but it was never that easy with her.
She always had an ulterior motive, there was always something to hide.
“I—” Rummy stuttered, her shoulders drooping, her body curving in on itself.
For the first time ever, I caught myself actually feeling sorry for her. The expression on her face was one of pure confusion.
I shook the concern away quickly, reminding myself that she was a master manipulator.
And I’d told myself that I’d never fall for that again.
“What?” I pushed. “What does he want with you? Why does he think you were sent here for a reason?”
I half expected Xavier to put a hand out to stop me. To tell me I was pushing too hard, being ridiculous. To de-escalate the situation like he always did.
Instead, he stood tall beside me, waiting for the same damn answers.
“He thinks I’m special, okay?” Her eyes glistened, but I didn’t believe the emotion was genuine, not even for a second. “But that’s all he said. I promise.”
She blinked, and when she zeroed in on me again, her expression morphed back into the fierce, shielded one she hid behind. All traces of vulnerability were long gone.
