Anger and hurt blazed through my body, inflaming me from head to toe.
“Igrievedmyself half to death over her—and over you. Youtookher. How could you do that to me? Why have you done this?”
“Simple,” Pharis said. “I couldn’t let Raewyn die. You wouldn’t step up and do what had to be done. So I did.”
“You’ve been plotting since the night of the ball to take her from me, and you finally did it,” I accused.
“I tried to stay out of it, believe me,” he said. “But you didn’t have the bollocks to defy Father and put her first. To choose her over everything.”
“And is that what you did?” I asked. “Chose Raewyn over everything? Your family? Yourhonor?”
“I have no honor,” my brother said.
“Truer words have never been spoken.”
Pharis had faked his own death and Raewyn’s. He’d let me believe a dragon had killed the woman I loved.
Based on what he was saying, he’d beenbehindthe dragon attack, which meant he’d killed our father and some innocent bystanders as well.
He’d been hiding somewhere. For months.
WithRaewyn.
And now he’d apparently brought her back to me. A sickening suspicion snaked over me, raising the hairs on the back of my neck.
“Wait a minute… have youbondedwith her?” I felt my hand reaching for the dagger at my belt. “Did you bring her here to taunt me?”
“No. We didn’t bond,” Pharis said. “But it was going to happen. It was inevitable.”
“What do you mean ‘inevitable?’”
Pharis sounded resigned, drained of all energy.
“That was what the matchmaker’s glamour revealed the night of the welcoming ball. I told you ‘Lady Wyn’ was the worst match for you out of the whole Assemblage. What Ididn’tsay was that the matchmaking glamour showed she was the perfect match forme.”
“It said she wasmine,”he continued. “And the chemistry between us lined up with that. It was too strong to keep resisting.”
“But I’m supposed to believe you did resist… all this time… out of the goodness of your heart?” I sneered.
It’s true,he said mind-to-mind.We haven’t bonded.
I was surprised but still incensed.
“How noble of you. So why hold yourself back?” I asked. “If your story about the matchmaker’s glamour is true, and youbelieve Raewyn’s your fated mate, why not just keep her away and let the ‘inevitable’ occur? One more day, and I would have been married to someone else.”
Looking at my brother’s powerful form and handsome face, I added, “I’m sure she would have given in to you eventually. You could have had her all to yourself for eternity.”
Now Pharis looked me straight in the eye. “It wasn’t up to me. She escaped. I followed her back here, but she slipped inside the gates before I could catch her.”
He swallowed hard and added, “She chose you.”
“What?” I blinked several times.
Pharis nodded. “She loves you.”
I heard it from her own mouth,he added mind to mind.
“Raewyn loves me,” I repeated.
