They stare at each other, shocked. Theo can’t be certain this isn’t some kind of trick. As if Aerin’s thinking the same thing, she speaks the words again.
“Hello, Theo.”
The wine glass in his hand falls through his fingers and shatters on the floor, pieces skittering everywhere. The sound is overshadowed by Theo’s laugh. He’s laughing, if only not to cry.
They crash together. Theo has both arms wrapped around her waist, lifting her off the ground in an instant. He buries his face in her neck, inhaling her scent. She smells a bit like fall and entirely likehome. He never wants to let her go.
Setting Aerin back on her feet, he pulls away to see her face. She’s smiling, and it lights her up so brightly she shines. However, it only takes a second for the smile to fall. Pain passes over her features briefly before she shuts everything down again.
The world around them comes crashing back in, like a hammer to an anvil. Creatures are whispering. Cameras are flashing.
Theo doesn’t care; he would claim Aerin for the entire continent to see. He’d carve out his own heart only to lay it at her feet.
But then, Aerin knows that.
She takes a step back. Something inside Theo cracks, but he keeps a smile plastered over his features.
Aerin clears her throat.
“As I was saying…” She’s loud enough for those around them to overhear. “It’s not done yet. But soon. Perhaps a few months, at the most?”
She is asking something of him, a pleading look in her golden eyes.
Theo doesn’t let his disappointment show. A few months is nothing compared to what they’ve been through. A few months is nothing compared to the time they will get to have together when things are right again.
Theo nods.
“A few months.”
Relief floods through her features, but Aerin locks it away quickly. She nods before she walks away from him. Again.
12
MALICE
Fighting a headache before he even opens his eyes, there is a knock on the door deep inside of Malice:thump thump thump.He ignores the pounding. Eventually it will refuse to be ignored. Instead, it will demand. To be heard, seen, free.
When that time comes, Malice will deal with it.
He drags his hands down his face, trying to rub the sleep from his brain. Glancing at the clock, he sees it’s just past seven in the morning. Malice had been pleasantly surprised to follow Aerin back to the apartment around one a.m. last night. After the drama, he assumed she’d be keen to obliterate all her senses with copious amounts of drugs and alcohol. Instead, Aerin walked silently back to the apartment, less pointedly ignoring him and more lost in her own head.
There was no mention of the moment between them in the living room before the party. Or the moment between them in the destroyed bathroom. No mention of the way that something bound tightly around her seems to have loosened.
No, Aerin Tolvare didn’t speak to him at all. No obnoxious quips or attempts to piss him off. No brandishing words likeknives. She didn’t even look at him, Malice nothing more than a shadow.
Malice isn’t sure if he should feel relief or annoyance. It’s for the best. If she looks through him, then she isn’t looking at him. Isn’t dissecting him with a gaze that seems to catch him like a fly in a web.
Throughout his life Malice has given away many pieces of himself, chipped them off and handed them over until he became a patchwork of blank spaces. He refuses to give any pieces to Aerin Tolvare. So, it’s better for Aerin to ignore him, really.
Sitting up, Malice grabs his phone off the nightstand, intending to check the cameras he’d set up last night. Instead, he sees a message from Bruin Tolvare.
Where were you?
The Prince included a link to a tabloid site. Malice opens it, apprehensive. He finds photo after photo of Aerin. Aerin hardly wearing any clothes, sandwiched between the Vipers in some dark booth. Aerin on a dance floor. Aerin taking shots. Aerin behind the DJ booth.
Malice sends back:I don’t appreciate being photographed and took care not to be.
He lies. He lies to the True Heir of Valtara. Gods. He is fucked.
