“I feel like it's a smidge late for that,” she said.
The urge to throw her over my shoulder and drag her out of here was an inferno in my blood, boiling over.
Her eyes heated and lowered to my lips. I watched as she licked her bottom lip, and need stirred deep in me. She was the rock in the night, and I was a ship crashing into her, helpless against her power.
“It’s not enough to be his heir, Rose; he needs to be ruined,” I said.
It was a painful truth, and my throat felt tight after I released it, but she deserved to know. That the need for vengeance in me was more than my obsession for her. I was closer now than I’d ever been before.
I expected hurt to play over her beautiful face, but instead, she nodded once, her lips pressing together.
“I know you, Edward Smith. I didn’t expect you to be suddenly inspired to lay down your sword. I know what the end goal is. All I’m asking is that we do it together. If that means revealing you as Sebastian, then so be it, but come with me to get the net. When we get back, we will decide,” she said.
“No,” I ground out even though my chest ached with the force of the word. “What I should do is tell them now and say you didn’t know.”
She tilted her head and shrugged her shoulders. The music was picking up in speed, the rise and fall of her chest smothering me.
“You could, but Edmonds will refute it, and everyone knows he’s the one who captured Flynn. All you would do is appear a bit mad, and given the way your father didn’t give you a warm welcome, the effect would be lost. So come away with me on onemore adventure. When we get back, you can scream it to the heavens, and Edmonds will admit he lied.”
“Why would he do that?” I asked.
Her dark hair was longer than when I last saw it. After she’d cut it just to spite me. All I wanted was to thread my hand through her hair and breathe her in. Fresh lavender already drifting off her. It was strange not to have the sea salt mixed in, but this was her world. A world devoid of the sea.
“Don’t get mad,” she said.
Irritation climbed up the veins in my neck.
“Rosamund,”
Despite the way she bit her lip, she laughed, a light sound amidst infinite heaviness.
“I missed hearing you say my name like that. Like you aren’t sure if you want to kill me or fuck me.”
My feet lost their rhythm, and I tripped, but she quickly corrected for us, another laugh breaking loose from her. Seas, she was everything. Infuriating and intelligent, beautiful and dangerous, she was everything that mattered.
I swallowed, recovering from the shock of her words. I cleared my throat and met her eyes, playing this game with her because I was weak.
“It’s the latter,” I said.
Her mouth fell open, and she sputtered out a cough that brought a smile to my face. I liked seeing her undone, especially when she was trying to manipulate me.
“Tell me why he would ruin his reputation by claiming he lied under no evident duress,” I said.
She scrunched up her lips and hummed, debating. With a slowness that said she was rethinking her choice, she released my waist and pulled up the sleeve of her gown. There, in black ink outlined with glittering gold, was a serpent eating its own tail.
I stilled, and she followed suit, quickly rolling down her sleeve again so no one would see, but I’d seen. Horror welled within me, and all thoughts of fucking or vengeance went right out the window. This was worse than I could ever have imagined.
Clapping sounded around us, the song having come to an end, but I was frozen in time beneath the knowledge ricocheting through my mind.
“Did you know what you were agreeing to?” I asked, icy fury in my voice.
“I did, and I’m not sorry. If I return with the net, he will say he lied if you ask it of him,” she said, slowly.
“You completed the ritual,” I said.
She snorted. “Obviously.”
She nodded to her arm and how she could be so unbothered by what she did, saying she didn’t understand nearly enough.
