Instead of looking at any of them, Aerin endures the third course while staring at the male just beyond Cisera’s shoulder. Malice stands on alert against the wall, his hands clasped behind his back, eyes on Aerin constantly. The ice blue eats into her.
Aerin isn’t sure if it’s better or worse than conversation with Cisera would be.
Malice looks at her but is doing his absolute best not toseeher. Aerin hates it.
Wait staff are pulling now-empty plates to ready the table for the next course when Aerin finally feels herself snap. Standing abruptly, she excuses herself and storms out of the hall. The building has few rooms off the main one, but like every building in the Royal Village, Aerin knows the one farthest from the revelry.
She shoves into a washroom near the front of the building and places her hands on either side of the sink. Only seconds pass before Malice follows her inside.
Like everything her father builds, this washroom is one of excess. A plush couch sits against the far wall, while paintings and carved crown moldings adorn the room. In the corner stands a statue of a female Fae, water spilling from her outstretched hands. The sound of the water is supposed to be soothing. Right now, it isn’t.
Aerin whirls on Malice, ready to spit more vitriol at him.
“Would you stop that?” Aerin snarls.
Malice stands directly across from her. The door to his left shut behind him. Aerin seals the entryway with her magic, preventing sound going in or out. The last thing she needs are rumors about a fight with her lover after just announcing her Paramyr to the City-State.
“Stop what?” he asks incredulously, folding his arms over his chest.
“Looking at me like the very last thing you want to do in the world is look at me,” Aerin bites. Her hands are shaking; she tucks them into fists.
Malice shrugs and Aerin wishes she could punch him.
“I have to do my job, Princess.” His voice is low and threatening as he glowers at her.
“You know what? You’re fired!” Aerin shouts throwing her arms in his direction in a rage.
His eyes flare. “You don’t have the power to fire me. Iwillprotect you.”
Her chest hurts, like she’s being carved into. Despite all his protests, Aerin knows Malice wants to be a part of her Bond Group, wants to be more to them than her personal guard.
“You don’t get to have both, you don’t!” Her voice wavers, emotions she doesn’t want to release surfacing.
“I don’t want both,” he assures her, tightening everything back up, closing right before her eyes.
“Yes, you do!” Aerin rebuts. Malice shakes his head.
“Just give it up, Aerin,” he sighs.
She wants to scream, to shake him, to shake the whole building. Instead, she inhales sharply and shouts at the stupid male.
“I can’t! Don’t you get that? You think I want this? You think I want to feel like this? For you to have this power over me?”
Something in Malice cracks, his cool exterior explodes with emotion as he roars at her, “I never asked for this! I never wanted this! You forced this on me! You?—”
“No, I didn’t!” Aerin screams back, they are close now, only inches apart. His chest heaves right alongside hers. “I’ve known,” Aerin says more carefully, her tone exasperated more than enraged. “From the moment I met you, I’ve known. The same way I did with the others.”
Malice is her bond-mate. Not just a creature she strong-armed into a blood-bond, but one meant for her. Even if he doesn’t believe it, Aerin knows. He reels through emotions before settling back on anger.
His lip pulls up, revealing his canines as he snarls, “Don’t blame the Fates for your inability to handle rejection.”
“Ask Reikan!” Aerin shouts back. The Dragon who knew from the instant he laid eyes on Aerin that they were made foreach other. Malice catches her wrist with a touch of cruelty. Hurt hangs in his eyes.
“Don’t youdarebring him into this,” he says, his voice dark and low.
If bringing Reikan into it is the only way to get Malice to see reason, if it’s the only way to end this pain between them, then she’d do it.
“Maybe the two of you were meant for each other, but not me. I’ve never had a choice, not in any of this. Not with him and certainly not with you.”
