“Thorne!” I yelled. “What are you?—”
“Do you trust me, Empress?” he asked, eyebrow raised.
I eyed the cliffs above us, with its surging waves that could draw me under and lose me completely.
“Yes,” I replied.
He held out his hand.
I placed my palm in his, and we walked forward. But he wasn’t leading meintothe waterfall—he was leading mebehindit, to a hidden alcove invisible from the front. I rushed beneath a small deluge of water with a squeal and exited into a dark, dank nook on the side of the mountain, both of us spluttering and drenched.
It was like someone had dulled all sound. The pounding of the waterfall on the other side of the rock wall was muted, barely a drumbeat in our little haven. I could still see the trees through the thin cascade we’d walked under, but other than that, it looked as if we’d left everything behind.
I realized why he’d brought me here.
We stood there panting, water dripping from our skin and clothes as we stared at each other.
I pinched my brows together and blinked at him through the drops on my lashes. “You—you're falling for me?”
His shoulders dropped with his next exhale. “How could I not?”
My head spun. Before the cave-in, I thought this was all in my mind—every heated glance, every grazing touch, the crackle of lightning I felt when he was near.
It wasn’t supposed to happen this way. It wasn’t supposed to happenat all. I had a responsibility. A duty I proudly bore, so long as it would help our nations. People counted on me.Believedin me. Expected me to do the right thing.
He was never supposed to matter.
He was never supposed to be the balm to my storm. The one who inexplicably knew how to soothe the fringes of my panic. Theone who crawled his way under my skin and made a home in the corner of a heart I’d sworn I couldn’t give away. The one who saw parts of myself I hated and didn’t turn his back.
“How did this happen?” I breathed out, more to myself than him.
He combed his fingers through his wet hair and rested a hand on the base of his neck, his forearm flexing when he squeezed it. “Trust me, I didn’t plan for any of it.”
I leaned back until my spine hit the damp rock wall behind me. “I don’t know what we’re supposed to do.”
“Nothing, Empress,” he said quickly. “This is for me to bear, and only me. It hasnothingto do with you. I would never do anything to jeopardize the plans you have.”
I glanced at him with wide eyes. “You think this has nothing to do with me?”
“I only mean that?—”
“You think I’m not falling for you too?”
His words evaporated on his lips, his chest swelling as he took a shuddering breath. He didn’t even seem to notice his feet moving toward me. “You are?”
This was possibly the worst mistake I’d ever make. Nothing good could come from today. From opening my heart and telling him the truth—tellingmyselfthe truth—because I was going to be Empress Clarissa Aris, and it didn’t matter what I wanted. Not if people would suffer for it.
But right now…
Right now, we were just Rissa and Thorne.
His hand came up to cup my neck, tentatively at first. When I didn’t push away, his thumb brushed along my bottom lip. My eyes fluttered shut.
“Clarissa…” He trailed off, waiting for my answer as his warm breath washed over my cheeks. Something hot and longing coiled in my core.
“Yes,” I said, voice trembling. “I think I’m falling for you too.”He dropped his forehead to mine, a tremor going through his body. “And I don’t know how to stop.”
His thumb traced my chin and over my jaw, then down to the pulse point above my collarbone. His hand wrapped around the back of my neck. He pulled his forehead away, his eyes so close, I could see water droplets dripping from his lashes with every blink. They fell onto my cheek and rolled down my neck.
