CHAPTER 12
My eyesfinally meet Evander’s. He has yet to move. He continues to stare at me as my finger drags across my still-wet lips, feeling the proof of what I’ve done. His eyes are still burning with hate. Well, now we share that emotion. Self-loathing fills me.
“And here I thought that you were a noble witch of character, powerful enough to resist his charm,” he growls.
“Excuse me?”
Evander stalks over, his muscles rippling with tension. Fists clenched. He looms over me. “You…”
“Me? What?” I gather myself and stand a little taller. The only judgment I will accept is my own, and Aurora’s. I’m certainly not giving that power to this brutish lykin.
“Did you like the way his tongue in your mouth felt? Did it set you ablaze the way you’d hoped it would?”
“What does it matter to you?” I snap. I continue before he can get in another word, “I’ve spent my whole life with people looking at me sideways—for good or ill. With people judging me for all I did and did not do. And you know what? Their assessments of me have made no difference. So what makes you think I will expend any effort to care about yours?”
He folds his arms and cocks his head back, pulling away slightly. “What about Aurora? I thought you cared about her.”
The words strike me straight through the chest, as sure and true as a hunter’s arrow. “My relationship with Aurora is between her and me alone. Stay out of it.”
“Fine. If you wish. Then I won’t concern myself with bringing you to her.” He shrugs. “She would probably be heartbroken, anyway, to find out what you really are.”
I still have several choice words for Evander. But there’s only one thing he said that I choose to focus on. “You can take me to her? She’s still here?”
“Of course she is. Conri wouldn’t allow her out of his sight for long. Lest she try to run away again…or someone tries to steal her.”
“Take me to her.”
“Why should I?” Evander turns and begins to shove some of Conri’s things into the rucksack the wolf king had started packing earlier.
“Because you would be escorting me as a knight, and that’s better than being a king’s butler.” I take the opportunity to snatch my cloak off the bed, throwing it over my shoulders. Evander doesn’t stop me.
“Better a butler than a whore.” He goes to put the pack by the entrance. I move in front of him and stop him. “Move.”
“No.”
He opens his mouth to speak.
I cut him off. “Apologize.”
“For—” Evander stops himself before he can say “what.” He continues to glare down at me.
I glare back, unmoving. Unflinching. I honestly expect him to push past me, to repeat his offensive words, or defend what he said. But Evander sinks back slightly, glancing away.
His pale silver eyes are drawn back when he finally says, “That was uncalled for. My apologies.”
Shock has my lips parting slightly. He actually apologized. I hastily try and recover, as if I was expecting him to heed my demand all along.
“You’re forgiven. I’m sure your king deciding to marry a human, without warning, is a bit upsetting to you. It’s understandable that you’d still be processing this turn of events.”
A deep, rasping noise emits from him. At first I think he’s weeping. But then he shakes his head and I see the almost crazed grin spanning his cheeks.
Evander takes a step closer, voice dropping with his chin as he levels his eyes with mine, a dangerous glint flashing in their stormy depths. “He might be the wolf king. But he is not—and will never be—my king. Not after what I have seen him do. Not after what he has forced my hand to do on his behalf.”
My lips part slightly. Then why was Evander so angry? And what does this mean if he’s my sworn knight by a king he so clearly does not respect? This man is like a maze. Every time I think I’m on the right path to understanding him, I have to backtrack and start all over again.
“Now, let’s get you to Aurora before the pack moves.” He starts out of the tent. I let out a noise of frustration and hastily follow.
The lykin packing up their camp mirrors my own thoughts—disorganized and chaotic. I’m in a daze the entire way through to the far edge, where I see Bardulf taking Aurora from a tent similar to Conri’s.
