More shouts filled my ears, and fear swept over me. I had to keep moving, so I lowered myself more.
The stone wall was slick with frost and rough with ice-crusted seams that tore at my gloves. I pressed my sneakers flat against the vertical surface, searching for purchase in cracks and tiny ledges. The rope burned my palms even through the leather.
My wounded leg screamed when I put weight on it, but I swallowed a cry and kept moving.
Suddenly, the knot gave…and I dropped.
CHAPTER 7
Kai
My boots struck the cold stones hard, sending loud echoes along the passage as tension radiated through my shoulders and down my spine. Worse, the damnyankin my chest intensified with every step I took away from that strange, infuriating woman. The way she managed to get under my skin made it even more important that I take another shot of herbs immediately. Add in the weird way she’d spoken and touched me, and how it had made things in my pants hard that had no business being erect, and she was a harbinger of disaster. Emotions and distractions would cost me everything I’d sacrificed to save my people.
Ashren’s boots scuffed the floor, reminding me he was following me. For the first time in my life, I wanted to punch him and put him in a holding cell. He should’ve come to me when he’d realized she was freezing.Iwould’ve handled the situation, nothim. Instead, he’d decided to take care ofmyprisoner.
We reached the staircase and continued up to the final landing, and the hall and stairs leading to my sanctuary. My breath frosted in the cool stairwell, but my blood roared as if I were caught in a bonfire.
Hannah of Tennessee.
The name scraped against my thoughts like grit between my teeth. What a ridiculous name! And why would Fate chooseherto be withmeand drop her herenowwhen things were so dire?
I clenched my fists, the infernal tugging and twisting in my chest worsening. I tried not to imagine her back in that cell and tried not to remember her sparkling hazel eyes and how her soft hair smelled like apricots and magnolias.
My dick began hardening again.
That wretched woman had been cheerful and arrogant, despite being locked in an icy holding cell barely larger than a closet.
The fury vanished from my body, replaced by cold fear.
Shit.
I hadn’t moved her.
She needed to be moved to a proper cell. Maybe even a room where I could keep an eye on her so none of my guards could get near her and fall victim to her oddly seductive behavior.
Folge, Bannon, and Mik had put her far away from the other prisoners, which…I didn’t want her near them, but I also didn’t want her freezing.
A low growl built in my chest. Why did she make it so hard for me to think straight? I needed another dose of lorn leaf.
I ground my teeth as we reached the final landing and turned into the hall that led to my study. Torches burned low, their flames guttering in the draft, casting long shadows that stretched and warped across the stone.
She could stay down there for a while longer, now that she had the enchanted gloves and coat. Yet, that thought wasn’t comforting. Leaving her behind grated on me, and so did the thought of sending someone else to move her. I didn’t want her spoken to, touched, assessed, or looked at by anyone else. Merely because of her strange antics, not due to actual care or a need to protect her.
My stomach churned. If I were alone, I’d be stomping and throwing things, but I couldn’t do that in front of anyone else, not even my own brother.
Why did she make it so difficult to know what I wanted? I needed to focus on something else. And I knew exactly who deserved my full attention. “Do you intend to defend yourself, Ashren? Or are you hoping I’ll forget what you did if you walk quietly enough?”
He exhaled slowly. “I assume you’d prefer honesty to excuses, and you already know the truth, so why should I waste my breath? You wish me to tell you what you already know?”
I shot him a look over my shoulder. “Tell me the truth, even if you think I know it.”
He scoffed, then cleared his throat. “It was freezing down there. The guards followed your orders, but that woman would have frozen within a matter of hours. My actions were in line with your underlying intent that she should remain alive for questioning, which meant you didn’t want her to die from the cold.”
Smoldering rage blasted through me, but beneath it was something sharper, more dangerous. “That was notyourjudgment to make. You should have checked withme. They were given a direct order.”
“They were. And you were angry when you gave it, so you weren’t as clear as you usually are. I also knew what you actually intended, which is why I went down there to check on her.”
I turned to face him and snarled, “You aren’t telling me the full truth. What of Thea?”
