“We must constantly fight against our very nature. We practice control in every facet of our lives. I wonder if you understand a bit of what that’s like.” Scarven shifted his hand to my chin, forcing me to face him. With his other hand, he pushed a grape to the edge of my lips, a silent command to open.
I obeyed. The grape glided into my mouth, and when I bit into it, its tart juice made my stomach coil. A mixture of fear, disgust, and temptation brewed at his words. I could see how his people got lost in these parties. It was easy to forget yourself, easy to let yourself sway to the music as food coursed throughyour system, easy to linger on masked faces instead of your own problems.
But your problems always came back to you. None of these desires could make things better. It was all a façade, a lie.
Scarven smirked. “I like to provide a safe haven, of sorts, for my people to let go. To give in to the passions that drive them, but that they must keep locked away from the rest of the world. To indulge.” His finger traced my collarbone. “To feel.” It trailed up my neck. “Tolive, as you said last night.” His thumb came up to the other side, his hand wrapping loosely around my throat. “It can be difficult to get what we want. I’m merely making it easier.”
“And what is it thatyouwant, Lord Scarven?” I whispered, swallowing the grape as his grip tightened ever so slightly.
“What everyone wants,” he said. “Power.”
“You havemagic. And you’re the leader of an entire province. Don’t you already have power?”
He removed his hand and waved at the serpent to back away. “There are different kinds of power. Some gained by fear, some by force. But what many don’t understand is that the most absolute, undeniable power is gained by knowledge.”
His words pricked the back of my mind. We were on the verge of something; I could feel it.
“Knowledge,” I hummed. “Your books here must be very different from Mysthelm’s, then.”
He chuckled. “Ah, Selena. The kind of knowledge I desire cannot be found inbooks.”
Oh, I bet it can’t. I struggled to keep my breaths even, my face neutral. “Then where?”
He moved closer. “Do you really want to know?”
We were standing on a precipice. A door cracked open, beckoning me closer to the truth, but there was something in me that seized in fear.
“I don’t know,” I whispered. The words slipped from me before I could stop them.
Whatever hold I had over him broke like a spell, the tensiondissipating as quickly as it came. He leaned back and propped one ankle on top of his knee. “Perhaps another time, then,” he said, his eyes leaving mine to rove around the room.
“Lord Scarven?” A guard approached our couch, bending low to whisper in Scarven’s ear. A pool of shadows on the couch shimmered and flicked toward me, bringing his quiet words to my ear.
“...latest caravan from the west has arrived. They’re ready to be sorted in the Hollow,” the guard said before straightening.
The Hollow. There was that word again. The same place the fatesprig had been taken that night I intercepted the shipment.
Caravan from the west. Could this be supplies? Weapons? More prisoners?
Scarven nodded curtly and got to his feet. “Escort Miss Nyte back to her carriage,” he ordered the guard. He didn’t so much as glance in my direction as he moved behind the couch.
My heart crashed to the floor. I’d ruined it. I’d shattered whatever bubble we’d been wrapped in and lost his attention. Was it something I’d said? Should I have been more forward? Less hesitant? More provocative?
Disappointment flooded me, and I imagined how I’d have to tell the others that I’d failed, how I’d have to tellNox?—
And then Scarven’s voice appeared in my ear. “It’s a pity you’re leaving for Emberfell in three days, Selena.”
I craned my neck up so I could look at him.
“There’s an entireworldI could have shown you,” he said. “A world free of the innocence and naivety of your little kingdom.”
I blinked. He thought I was going with the Mysthelm contingency on the rest of their tour.Thatwas why he was creating distance.
Hope thrummed inside of me. Perhaps this wasn’t over yet.
“Give me a reason, and I could be convinced to stay,” I murmured.
“And what of your crew?”
