“I think there’s a part of me that calls to you,” he answered. “And a part of you that calls back.”
I stopped breathing.
“But this,” he said then, gesturing between us, “like everything else, is your choice. I know you don’t trust me yet. And I know I’ve done damage to what little trust I had managed to build before. I’m willing to do everything in my power to rebuild that trust, to make you comfortable around me again and, maybe then, we can… revisit this, whatever this is between us.”
Because I didn’t trust myself to speak, I clamped my lips shut and nodded.
“For now,” he drawled, looking down at my hands and taking them in his own, running one thumb over the backs of them and hesitating, holding himself back, “I’m going to check on my friend, the one you saved. When you’re ready, I’d like for you to join us. We have much to discuss.”
He gently let go of me, turning away and striding toward the door.
“At some point,” he called out as he reached the threshold, “I look forward to hearing what sort of training my sister gave you.”
“At some point,” I called back, able to breathe again because of the distance between us, “I’d like to hear how you survived your own execution.”
He grinned that broad, dazzling smirk back at me once before striding through the door and leaving me alone in the washroom, knees weak and heart heavy.
Chapter twenty-eight
A Cave of Nightmares
Rookwasinmuchbetter spirits when I finally emerged from the bathroom. I had taken a shower first, telling myself it was because of the bloodstains still visible on my hands from helping Rook but really it was because I was trying to buy time before I had to face them all again after the bombshell that Lark had just dropped on me regarding our connection.
So I had taken a particularly long shower and an even longer time selecting the dark gray denim pants and loose gray sweater that I threw on before exiting into the living room again. I was so lost in thought that I hadn’t heard the revelry taking place just outside the bedroom door.
Rook was entirely healed, the magic having done the trick, and he was drinking heavily, smiling as Cass laughed uncontrollably at some story they were recalling. Even Lark was grinning, raising a glass to his lips which he paused when he saw me, that penetrating gaze sweeping over me from head to toe, drinking me in as if he could never get enough. Heat rushed to my cheeks and I lowered my head, pretending to fix my hair as I settled onto the settee next to Cass.
“You are so lying,” she was saying, though she was grinning from ear to ear.
“I swear to you, I’m not,” Rook boomed back. “That gorgon took one look at Lark and shit his metaphorical pants.”
Cass snorted into her glass as Rook reached behind her to hand me one of my own. Our eyes met and he gave me a solemn nod of thanks. It was enough.
“He’s not used to a Morningstar actually taking the job of Hellscape warden seriously, I bet,” Cass replied, rolling her eyes as she took a drink. Rook nodded his agreement. “Did he give you the key?”
Rook grinned, looking at Lark.
“It took some convincing,” Lark drawled before taking a deep sip of that amber liquid.
His eyes flicked to mine and I squirmed in my chair, internally cursing myself for the physical reaction. But the smirk on his lips when he noticed how he had affected me was almost worth it.
“He didn’t turn you to stone,” Cass said, brow creasing in confusion as she looked over her shoulder at where Rook lounged beside her. “But he stabbed you through the leg. How did that happen?”
“Turns out, he wasn’t working alone,” Rook told her and he wasn’t smiling anymore.
Neither of them were.
“Lark?” Cass asked, glancing at her brother as if hoping he might tell her it wasn’t true.
But Lark’s smirk fell into a frown.
“Fae appeared before we could grab him,” Lark said, swirling the contents of his glass and staring down into them. “Dressed in brown.”
I froze.
“Peace and Pride,” Cass muttered.
“My ass,” Rook snorted.
