They were running out of time, especially if she kept drawing attention with noise and blood. “Because I love you.”
Arianna’s face twisted as the invisible soldiers who fought wars in the dark battlefields of her mind plunged their claws into her all at once. “That’s not good enough.”
“Because I love you, and because you love me in return.”
Her eyes shot wide open. “I do not.”
“Why didn’t you kill me then, on the airship? Why not after? Why not on Nova, when I avoided you because I could no longer stand being in the same room as you without touching your skin? Why not when I brought you my brother’s hands? Why not a moment ago? Why not now?Why?” He needed to hear it as much as she needed to say it. They’d been dancing around it for so long, a waltz on the deck of a swan-diving airship.
“Because... because I want my boon.”
“Then why haven’t you spent this precious boon?” he pressed. She was too logical for this.
“Because I don’t know what I want.”
He sighed softly. “Yes, you do. You want this. You want me.”
“I only wanted you for a night.” Fallacy colored her magic.
“You wish that were true.”
“Damn you, Cvareh.” She cursed loudly. “Damn you!”
Arianna pushed away from him, swaying as she stood.
“You want to kill my brother. I want to see you do it. Petra’s already marked him for dead! You want to free Loom from Dragon rule, and Petra will give that to you. I will help.”
“I—”
“No more objections, Arianna. You know it’s true just as you’ve known all along that the man who betrayed you was closely connected to me. Perhaps, somewhere in that brilliant mind of yours, you’d already deduced the possibility of our familial ties.” Cvareh appealed to her sense of logic, her sense of reason. She was too smart not to have put it together. Even if she hadn’t consciously admitted it, she knew it was true.
“Everything has changed,” Arianna whispered.
“Nothing has changed,” he insisted. “There’s not much time. Come back with me to Ruana.”
“This isn’t about you,” she said sharply. “The King, he said something, something about destroying the guilds. I have to return to Loom.”
“Yveun Dono would never.”
“You’re clearly delusional if you really believe that he would not resort to whatever extreme he deemed necessary.” The very statement made him wonder if she somehow knew of the poisoned wine.
“We’ll be stronger together.”
“I don’t even know if I want to look at you.” The raw honesty of the statement cut him low. “I’m going to find a glider, and I’m going home.”
Arianna started for the door. Cvareh reached out, grabbing her wrist, stopping her. He couldn’t let her leave, not like this. She, the woman who had so claimed his heart, was leaving, and he honestly had no idea if she would ever return to him. If she would ever let him return to her.
She stared down at the offending hand, clearly waiting to see if he was going to willingly remove it or if she needed to cut it off. Cvareh chose the former.
“Ari, I’ll wait.”
“For what?”
“For when Loom is ready to join my House in this fight.” He pointed to his ear, reminding her of the whisper link they established and that either had yet to break.
Arianna stared at him with her violet eyes for one long moment. They scanned his face as if memorizing its every curve and edge. He wondered what she saw in him.
“We don’t need you,” she whispered. “You’ll only betray us again.”
