26
How fuckingdareyou,” Vaasa seethed as she pushed past Roman in the entryway rooms of The Lady Fortune, not even bothering to change out of the dress she wore or return the mask. Adrenaline pumped in her veins. Her knees still felt weak. It was whiplash—to go from such hot desire to cold anger. She felt the remnants of her tryst with Reid all over her, and fear burrowed into her bones.
She couldn’t let them find him. She had to get as far away from The Lady Fortune as possible.
It had been so fucking foolish.
Roman had shut down the brothel, had sent sentinels to swarm it in nothing but a brash show of power. There was noindication he knew who Vaasa had been with, or that she’d been with anyone at all. Only Regína had found her, and Vaasa had said she was hiding alone. Her breath was still labored, but that could be attributed to her sprint down the stairs.
She hadn’t even gotten to say goodbye to Reid. Again. In that moment, it felt like she was on that platform at the Icrurian election being dragged away from everything she loved.
Roman had taken her from him. Resentment lit in her core, filling the spaces where her desire had been.
She trudged out the doors and into the freezing air, immediately regretting her choice not to change. Snow soaked the hem of her dress. Still, she had spent weeks in the island prison. She knew cold. She could survive, despite the utter uselessness of her dress in the frigid Mekës temperatures.
“Wait—” Roman said, then cut himself off.
A crowd gathered around the brothel, members of the city guard and sentinels in abundance, and Vaasa suddenly thanked her mask and costume for the veil of privacy it afforded her. If she didn’t give herself away, these people wouldn’t know who she was. She needed to seem like anyone but the heiress of Asterya.
“If you want to be with her, then be with her!” Vaasa snarled loudly enough for the people around them to hear.
Roman must have caught on to her intentions, because he put his hands up as if he were just an idiot man who had been caught with another woman. “Just come with me and let me explain.”
“Why should I?”
The conversation they had now was real, though out of context. Roman slung off his borrowed costume jacket, a heavyweight fur-lined item. The fact that he had even bothered to change out of his sentinel’s clothing told her that he’d intended to sneak her out all along. If he’d wanted to really expose her location, or if he believed she had actually beenabducted, he never would’ve worn a costume. This was all to hurt her, to remind her that he had the power to make her miserable if he wanted to.
“You’re freezing,” he said, approaching the way a hunter approached prey.
Vaasa backed away from him, charging down the street while a group of people snickered at their lovers’ quarrel.
Roman swore, chasing after her.
Vaasa turned down another street and kept the pace until she could duck into a very narrow walkway between two stone buildings. There was so little light and no people. Alone, her anger boiled over. “You had no right!” she practically yelled at Roman as he sprinted onto the street.
Roman grabbed her bare arm, his face still covered in a mask. “Put on the fucking coat before you freeze to death.”
“I’ve been colder,” she reminded him. “Or have you already forgotten that I spent weeks in that prison?”
He winced, his grip loosening on her arm. “Just put on the jacket, please. What will the guards think if they see you in this dress?”
“That I fucked my new fiancé in a brothel,” she spat at him.
Misery slashed his brown eyes like someone had taken a pick to the cliffs overlooking the sea, and she knew she’d been cruel. Good. She wanted him to hate her. She deserved it. Her rouge was likely smeared across her face, the remnant of a stolen tryst with a man Roman hated. A man he had no idea was in this city.
“You aren’t going to let him touch you,” Roman said, recovering just as quickly as he’d let the emotion show. “I know you won’t.”
“If you have it your way, I won’t have a choice, will I?”
“Stop. Let me take you home, and then we can talk about this.”
“There is nothing to talk about!” She pulled her arm out of his grasp. “You are on Ozik’s side, not mine.”
“I’ll take you to her!” Roman snapped, tugging off his mask.
Vaasa went silent, and though she hated herself for it, the darkest parts of her smiled. She’d known Karev would be the thing that pushed Roman over the edge. To use him this way—it was a reminder of the evil she was well and capable of.
“Just put on the fucking coat, and I will take you to see your friend tomorrow night.”
