Without speaking, she stood up, pulled the blanket tighter around her. She wouldn’t look at him now.
He understood her anger and her misgivings. What he couldn’t bear was feeling her emotional withdrawal. He could almost see her walls going up again, higher than ever before.
“Selene, nothing is the same since I came here. The only thing I want is you.”
He stepped closer to her, reaching out to touch her arm. The imperious look she gave him stilled his hand.
“Sebathiel,” she stated calmly. “Please have a boat and crew readied to depart the dock for the mainland as soon as possible. Darion will be on it.”
CHAPTER 40
It was all she could do to hold herself together.
The people of the colony were dead. Grief overwhelmed her at the total, unthinkable loss. The exiles may have broken away from her and the realm, but they were still her people.
Had been.
They were all gone, and whoever had snuffed out their collective light now had the colony’s crystal too.
Selene didn’t want to consider it might be the Order. Not after Darion’s many assurances that he and his brethren were on the side of good, that they could be trusted as an ally to both the colony and her. But if not the Order, there was only one other possibility left to consider. It was even more harrowing to imagine it was the Ancient.
As for Darion, maybe he did have a change of heart since coming to the realm and spending time together with her, but that didn’t alter the fact that he’d taken the titanium box from her quarters with the intent of escaping with her crystal.
And she had been fool enough to trust him with its location besides.
Now, with her heart torn open and her soul mourning all of tonight’s staggering losses, she didn’t know what to believe.
Or whom to trust.
The only thing she was certain of was that she couldn’t bear to let Darion stay another minute when he was still the only one she wanted to turn to for comfort and strength while her entire world seemed to be crumbling around her. He needed to be gone, so she could think clearly and focus on what she had to do to save her people.
He stepped toward her. “Selene, please listen to me. For fuck’s sake, talk to me.”
“You heard Her Majesty,” Seb interjected. “You’re leaving.”
Darion swung a vicious look at him, fangs bared. “This doesn’t concern you, Seb. It’s between Selene and me. Get the hell out of here and let us talk. Now.”
Seb didn’t seem eager to challenge him, and the last thing Selene wanted was more violence on top of everything else that had happened tonight.
She nodded at Seb.
He frowned. “Are you sure you want me to leave you alone with him?”
“Go,” she said. “Have the boat prepared to sail. I’ll send him down to you.”
With a bow to her and a glower at Darion, Sebathiel was gone. As soon as the door closed behind him, Darion took Selene’s shoulders in his hands.
“I’m sorry for all of this.” His gaze was earnest with remorse. “I never would’ve betrayed you, and I hate that you’re hurting like this. You have to believe me.”
“Believe you,” she murmured. “I’ve believed every word you’ve said to me these past several days, Darion. All your pretty lies.” She inhaled a jagged breath. “I told myself you were too good to be true. I told myself not to be fooled by your kindness, your courage . . . your tenderness with me.”
How deeply had she feared she was falling too fast, getting swept up in the spell he’d woven around her? He’d made her feel safe and alive, protected, cherished . . . loved.
Even now, her foolish heart was desperate to believe him.
“You said all the things you thought I wanted to hear, Darion. You acted as if what we had was real--all the while you had a plan in place to stab me in the back at the first opportunity.”
His solemn gaze flashed with amber sparks. “I never gave that damned box a second thought after I took it. I never would’ve considered taking it had I known what the crystal truly meant to you. Your life, Selene.”
