He paused and shrugged. “We have a complicated relationship.”
“I know—I mean… I noticed.”
“Have you?” He stepped closer.
The déjà vu struck like lightning. I backed away until my spine met the cold marble railing.
He stopped inches from me, towering over me. I could feel his cold breath, laced with wine, caress my skin and draw a shiver. I met his gaze, desperate to hold on to what little control I had left. The air thickened, charged and feral. My lips trembled.
“You shouldn’t look at me like that,” he said.
“I’m not?—”
He moved before I could finish. One hand caught my jaw, the other the base of my bound hair. His grip was firm and unyielding. My breath halted.
The world blurred. His fingers pressed hard, forcing me to meet his deadly stare.
I didn’t struggle. I couldn’t. I stood frozen in the kind of fear that robs you of reason.
“The way you smiled at the table,” he murmured. His voice was low, dangerous, almost tender. “Never do that again.”
I couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t think. My pulse hammered against his palm like prey in the wolf’s jaws.
Then, just as suddenly, he tore away, leaving only the burn of his hand on my skin.
He stood for a heartbeat, chest rising and falling, eyes wild, before his voice steadied again.
“Stay away from me, Evie.”
And then he was gone.
The silence that followed hurt. I slid down the railing until I sat on the dark blue carpet that looked black in the torchlight. My hands shook. Tears stung behind my eyes.
Hatred. That was what I’d seen in his eyes.
Pure, raw hatred.
I’d made a fool of myself. Tomorrow they would strip me of my post, my title, my stability.
And gods help me, I wanted him to come back, just so I could beg him not to take this life from me.
As I searched for a breath caught in my throat, the walls closed in fast. I tried to steady myself, to rise and flee, but I froze instead as the room went black and all went quiet.
Every shred of control I possessed had slid away with my tears.
My neck snapped. My head jerked back, and my eyes fixed on the carved ceiling. I caught a glimpse of the gilded lilies before my vision went dark and there was no return.
Images crashed over me like breakers, flashing through my mind, echoing a past I didn’t wish to see.
I saw the woods at the foot of the mountain.
I heard low voices calling, pleading, chanting.
I saw the cliffs high above, shrouded in snow. A wizard in dark green robes picked his way along a treacherous path toward the summit.
And then I saw him.
Kael stood there, his eyes gone white.
