Seeing my expression, Judd turns to follow the direction of my gaze.
Rip’s eyes flick to him for a split second. “Leave us.”
Judd passes me an unreadable look before he slips his hands in his pockets and walks off, taking the last of my happy distraction with him.
Now alone, Rip tilts his head at the tent, and I walk inside, warmth greeting me from the coal bank. Rip follows after me, bringing a chill with him.
Something is off. Something is wrong.
The tension is thick enough to slice, and he’s too still, too shadowed. His aura, which I’ve grown so used to, is restless, churning with agitation.
My hands wring together. “What’s wrong?”
He stays where he is, right at the entrance of the tent, with a foot of space between us that somehow feels both incredibly far, and much too close.
“King Ravinger will be here soon to meet with Midas.”
A little lightning bolt strikes into my stomach. I shouldn’t be so afraid. I’ve known this was coming. Yet now that it’s here, I can’t stop my heart from racing or my stomach from writhing in dread.
“What’s going to happen?”
To me. To Midas. To him. To them.
Rip shakes his head once. “That remains to be seen.”
I cross my arms like I can ward off the unease.
He watches me for a long moment, making me wind up so tight that I don’t even feel my ribbons around me.
“I have a question for you,” he finally says.
Something tells me I don’t want to hear it. “What is it?”
His black eyes are locked on my face, and I don’t know what he sees, I don’t know what he thinks. It’s like this every time I’m around him, but right now, it makes me want to scream.
“Do you want to stay?”
My lips pull downward as his question spins in my head. “Stay?” I repeat breathlessly.
Rip takes a single step forward. Just one, but it divides the space between us in half. He’s like he was that night, after I sent the hawk. Quiet. Pensive. An intensity about him that takes up all the air, makes every single one of my senses go alert.
His voice drops. “You don’t have to go back. I could make it so that you could stay.”
The breath catches in my throat when I realize what he’s saying. I’m stunned, confused, I don’t know what the hell to say.
“I could make it happen. But you have to tell me now, before King Ravinger arrives.”
Restless unease makes me start to pace in the small space. “Why are you offering this?” I ask, bewildered. “I’m yourprisoner, Rip. Your king no doubt wants to use me for some kind of ransom, and you’re the commander of his army that’s probably going to declare war tomorrow. You can’t ask me if I want to stay. You can’t.”
He stands as proud and as unyielding as a wall. “I can, and I am. You have a choice, Auren.”
I’m so confused, so damn shocked. “Your king would never allow it. Not if he already has a ransom in mind. He plans to use me, and he will.”
“Not if you tell me now.”
I stop to gape at him. “What would happen to you, to your soldiers?”
“You don’t have to worry about that.”
