Her lips puckered at the memory. Gods, she hadn’t been able to bear how condescending he sounded when he proposed to her, like he was doinghera favor, foolish little empath that she was.
Atria picked up her knife and began to saw into her slab of chicken fried steak with a touch too much enthusiasm. “I broke it off that same night. There are some things a bond doesn’t fix, and I wasn’t about to sew my soul to a man who thought my feelings were infantile.”
Kaz’s voice was low and flat when he asked, “And how did he take that?”
“Badly.”
She wasn’t looking at him, so it came as a surprise when she felt a warm, callused hand curl around her wrist, halting her frantic sawing. Atria glanced down and blinked at the sight.
Kaz’s hand was huge compared to her arm. When he gently circled her wrist, her tattoo disappeared, replaced by strong, kohl-darkened fingers and retracted claws. Her tattoos represented shackles, a symbol of her order’s commitment to serve, and though she did not disrespect her line by covering often, she couldn’t say that she disliked the sight of Kaz hiding one under his palm.
“What did he do, Atria?”
She looked up to find Kaz’s expression hewn in terrible lines. His jaw was locked, his brows lowered, and his eyes…
Atria had seen many different kinds of people in her life. She had never,everseen someone as terrifying as Kaz. He looked like he wanted to tear a throat out with his teeth. He probably had.
Except she wasn’t afraid, because when his palm smoothed up her forearm, her connection to his emotions snapped into laser focus. Rather than absorbing them from a distance, it was like getting a direct hit to her veins.
Rage. Protectiveness. Jealousy. Loneliness. Affection. Guilt.
They tumbled together into a potent cocktail that left her reeling. Her voice was barely a breath when she stammered, “I— what do you mean?”
Kaz’s fingers tightened ever-so-slightly around her arm. “Did he hurt you? Stalk you? Tell me.” His baritone was icy cold. It snapped in the air between them, sucking all the warmth from her in an instant.
“No, none of that,” she squeaked, heart racing. Wanting to reassure him, she gently placed her hand over his and sent a soothing ripple of gratefulness through that point of contact. She watched as Kaz blinked, his emotional storm calming in an instant.
It was a normal thing for an empath of her caliber to do, but when her magic made contact with him, it was like a flash went off in her mind.Her energy lurched. It was as if every drop of it sought to run through her fingertips and into him.
Her breath quickened. Pulling her fingers away from him, she wondered,What was that?
Hoping he didn’t feel anything abnormal that she couldn’t explain, Atria quickly added, “He was just upset. Really upset. Way more than I thought he’d be, considering… Well, you know. He did all the things the entertainment feeds say to do to get someone back — flowers, music, love letters. All of it. But when it didn’t work, he eventually gave up.”
She shrugged, playing casual even as her heart continued to pound. “I— I was happy when he started to move on. He dated around. Mostly fey I’d never met, which was another surprise. I’d never even seen him socialize outside of our small academic circles before.”
Kaz’s eyebrows shot up to nearly grace his hairline. “He brought his new partnersaroundyou?”
“We were still friends.” It sounded lame even to her own ears.
His expression darkened again. “Did that hurt you?”
“A little at first, but after a while he seemed to be genuinely moving on.” She tried very hard not to notice that Kaz’s hand had moved up her arm another inch. “It was petty, and I thought he was trying to flaunt them in my face. After a while, though, he seemed completely disinterested in me that way. Then after he moved to be closer to a covey, I thought—”
“Where?”
Atria wished she could keep her damn mouth shut. “Kaz…”
He didn’t say anything. Kaz simply kept his eyes on her, unblinking, until she finally crumbled. There was not even a hint of mercy in that stare.
“I… Fine. If youreallythink he might be the person who sold us out — and I don’t — then we should just go ask him. He lives in Denver.”
She watched Kaz’s lips part. Slowly, like he was working it out in his head, he breathed, “You were going to see him.”
Well, when he said it likethat,it didn’t sound great. Was it her imagination, or did he actually sound… hurt by the revelation?
“We’refriends,”she stressed, stubbornly ignoring how every word out of her mouth seemed to incriminate him more. “We were partners for six years. Of course I was going to stop by his lab to say hello after I met with the Orclind team.”
Kaz’s jaw moved from side to side, the muscles flexing hard. His voice’s volume rose just a little bit with every word, like he was struggling to control himself when he announced, “You know what? That sounds like a great idea. You and I are going to sayhelloto Mr. Chambers.”
