‘Go ahead,’ Will breathed, his grip tightening on her arm. ‘Tell me what a monster I am so you don’t have to face the fact that you’re one too.’
He shoved her away from him and walked to the other side of the cell.
Aya’s chest heaved as she forced air into her lungs, her fists clenching and unclenching at her sides. She reached blindly for whatever force had ravaged through her in the square, but all that was there was a hollowness that echoed into every part of her body. Will watched, his dark chuckle filling the space between them. ‘Having affinity issues, are we?’
‘I’ll use my bare hands if I have to.’
He let out a long breath as he leaned against the wall opposite her, his arms folding across his chest. ‘You’re not going to kill me. The guards you injured are fine, by the way,’ he added lightly.
Fine, except for the four she’d killed. Aya repressed a shudder.
‘A healer tended to them,’ Will said, and let his arms drop to his side. ‘I know you didn’t mean to hurt them.’
‘That’s the difference between you and me,’ she hissed.
A simmering rage flashed in his eyes, barely held at bay as he pushed himself off the wall. ‘I was under orders—’
‘I don’t give a damn about your orders.’
‘You should,’ he snapped. ‘Or perhaps the guards in the market were right. Perhaps youhaveforsaken your oath. Tell me, Aya, how did you get entangled with Kakos?’
You and I both know it’s not light that drives you.
‘You lecture me on my oath, and yet you tortured someoneyou’ve sworn to protect.’ Bile rose in the back of her throat again, and Aya’s jaw ached as she gritted her teeth. She’d kill him for what he’d done to Tova.
‘I questioned her on Gianna’s orders,’ he shot back. Wrath coated his tone, his temper finally slipping its leash. ‘Kakos has infiltrated this kingdom – there is no room for doubt.’
‘You disgust me,’ Aya seethed.
‘I’m well aware. It’s been ajoynot to have to sense it for an entire godsdamn day!’
She stilled, and Will watched her intently, as if her face held the answer to some riddle. She knew that look – it was the same one she used when pressing a source for information.
‘What do you mean, you don’t sense it?’ she said finally, the words practically a growl.
Will angled his head, his black hair brushing his brow. ‘I can’t read you.’
The air in the room seemed to tighten. Even with the cold of the cell, she could feel beads of sweat forming beneath her sweater.
‘Like right now,’ he continued softly as he took a single step forward, a predator fixed on his prey. ‘I can see the panic on your face. But I feel nothing. I haven’t been able to feel you since the Athatis attack. One minute I could feel your pain as if it was my own. The next …’
Her thumb brushed that healed skin, her heart beating furiously in her chest as she retreated, her back hitting the wall.
He agreed someone was framing Tova.
Perhaps he thought it was her.
She knew exactly how he’d try to confirm his suspicions, and now that he couldn’t sense her … the issue with his shield wouldn’t matter.
The pain wouldn’t even reach him.
‘Well, I guess that makes your job here easier,’ Aya breathed.
Will went deathly still – as still as she’d ever seen him, the light in his eyes winking out. But a knock on the door sounded before his power could touch her.
He glanced toward it, his jaw working in frustration. And then he was in front of her, his fingers curling around her upper arm as he swung her around to face whatever lay on the other side.
20
