Timewas one of the many things she didn’t have. If there was an opportunity to search the fortress and surrounding city for her mother’s necklace, it was here with Roman. He was in control of everything. She walked past him and to the oppositeside of the couch, sinking into the cushions. “What do you make of this? The visiting lords and my impending marriage?”
Though Vaasa was careful with her body, he wasn’t careful with his. He didn’t seem to mind the space he took up or the way it created a palpable proximity between them. He leaned against the arm of the couch, lifting a leg until he was seated casually and could rest his elbow against his knee. “I can’t seem to see another way forward. If you don’t marry someone, the lords will plunge Asterya into a civil war as they fight for the throne. It’ll destabilize the entire empire.”
Precisely.But that was the first time the gravity of the situation plummeted down her spine. There was only so much time before she ended up walking down another aisle, before she was back in the same position she’d been in after her mother’s death, except far worse. Yet without a doubt, there was room to pit the Old Asteryans against the New. The brimming tug-of-war between Vlacik and Karev was enough to do most of the work for her.
Could Vaasa survive a world in which she was forced to stand opposite Reid on a battlefield? She had originally hoped she could free Amalie and somehow make it out of this city before Asterya could work through this transition of power. But if she was strategic, she might be able to win this war from the inside.
She could say none of this to Roman, though. Vaasa sighed. “Then I suppose I’m left with no choice.”
Roman took a deep breath as if he was gathering courage. “There is a reason I have tried to keep my distance.”
Vaasa lifted a brow.
“I have heard things about you… about magic. That Reid of Mireh cursed you.”
Her ear couldn’t help but bend to that name—Reid of Mireh. What would it sound like to hear it fall from a nation’s lips and not just her own? To hear his new title on full display?Reid ofIcruria.Yearning flooded her body, but she pressed it down and tried to focus on the details of what he’d said. “He did no such thing.”
“So it wasn’t him, the Wolf?”
Vaasa scoffed, folding her arms over her chest and trying not to twitch at that nickname.The Wolf.Her wolf. The man who reflected the very creature her magic had become. “He does not possess magic.”
“Do you?”
Tilting her head, she asked, “Would it scare you if I did?”
“Yes,” Roman admitted.
Holding his gaze, Vaasa pieced together his level of knowledge as she did with every opponent. Yet she wasn’t certain hewasan opponent—not yet. “It was my mother,” she said, spinning a half-truth to gauge his reaction. “Her curse passed down to me when I found her dead. Ozik has ways of keeping it hidden.”
Roman moved ever so slightly away. It was fear, she knew. “It’s under control now?”
She couldn’t explain why hurt threaded up her spine and around her chest, but it felt like a ribbon had been tied in knots throughout her. “For now. Lord Vlacik wants to weaponize it. That’s why he and Ozik tortured me.”
Roman sat up straight. “Theywhat?”
If he was questioning Ozik, he didn’t do so out loud. Vaasa wasn’t certain what to say next. What could she? “Yes,” she finally managed.
“Vaasa, I—”
“You didn’t know?”
“I didn’t know. I swear it.” Roman leaned forward again and took her hand, looking at her now with new understanding. That touch sent awareness down every nerve she possessed. But she didn’t let go—not yet.
He scanned every inch of her with his brown eyes, probably looking for signs of injury. Those had all healed or were hidden beneath her heavy wool dress. Even the marks on her face had disappeared. He seemed satisfied with what he found, and then she realized that perhaps he was looking for traces of the curse. If what he said about Wrultho was true, he’d likely witnessed magic in some form.
What had they done to him to make him so afraid?
“I knew you’d been kept in one of the cells,” Roman said, “but Ozik assured me it was to keep you and everyone else safe as you fought the curse. You have to believe me. If I’d known what they were doing to you—”
“What would you have done?” she asked candidly.
Roman paused. Then, “I would have figured something out.”
A lackluster response, she thought, but scolded herself. WhatcouldRoman have done, truly? He’d have risked his own life and maybe the lives of others in order to do… what? Send her back to Icruria?
“Tell me you believe me,” he pressed, tightening his grip on her hand. “Please.”
Vaasa didn’t know if it was truth or fiction that fell from her lips when she said, “I believe you.” It was simply what he wanted to hear.
