She saw how his dark hair curled long enough to just get into his soft silver eyes. How he had a vial of dark liquid on a gold chain around his neck. How his cane clacked as he approached her, the sound echoing through her.
This time, they weren’t standing in the abyss.
They were standing in a dark space, with a strange soft purple light casting a glow upon them.
She had her back against the wall as he leaned over her and kissed her fiercely.
His tongue tasted like red wine.
She gasped as he breathed her in, and she ran her hands up the sides of his neck, her fingertips skimming past the gold chain. She curled them into his dark hair, pulled him closer as he pressed against her. His hands skimmed the hem of her tunic, setting her skin on fire.
It was not her, buthimthat pulled away.
And when the kiss broke …
It was no longer Kinlear pressed up against her.
It was Arawn.
Hisblue eyes were not hungry like Kinlear’s. They were soft as he stood above her, looking down. His hands cradled her face like she was fragile, made of glass and might break.
And his fingertips were on her scars, undisturbed and unbothered by the marks that had worn themselves deep into her skin, that had labeled her as different.
‘Ezer,’ he whispered. ‘Come back to me.’
And when he leaned in to kiss her, she wanted it.
She wanted it because he was looking at her like she was the moon on a dark night. Like she was?—
‘Ezer?’
She bolted up right to find?—
‘Arawn,’ Ezer gasped.
Oh, gods.
She blinked up at him, mortified.
Because she was breathless, and flustered, and did he know howpassionatelyhe’d just kissed her in her dream?
Did he know what they were just doing …together …behind her closed eyes?
He looked down at her with a half-smile on his face. Like he knew he’d caught her with her back up against the wall, but … no, he couldn’t. So she tried her best to look cool and nonchalant, to think of the swirling snow and cold, icy wind beyond the Citadel’s windows.
She’d never longed for anyone before. Never had such vivid dreams of what a man could do, how he could make her burn when he got too close.
You fool,she told herself.Get yourself in check!
You care nothing for either one of them.
You will never, not until the grave calls you under, fall for a Sacred Prince.
Because Kinlear was unhinged.
And Arawn … well, he wasArawn.
And he was holding a plate of cinnamon rolls in his large hands.
