“I did not.”
“No other siblings at all?”
What an odd question. “I’m the only one.”
“I appreciate you taking time with me tonight. I know I can be snippy.”
“No,” I breathed.
Another smile rose on her face, this one driving its dagger straight through my heart. What I wouldn’t give to . . .
Soon.
Maybe.
Or never.
“You’re a good teacher,” she said.
“Of many things.”
She rolled her eyes. “I wouldn’t have seen the wisps of power around me if you hadn’t shown me what to look for.”
I sucked in her praise, something I didn’t see much of. Although, no one else’s praise mattered. Only hers.
“I should leave,” she said. “There are only a few days left until the coronation.” Her gaze met mine before flicking away. “Will you be there, watching?”
“I will.”
“I’ll look for you.”
I nodded. “I won’t attend the dinner. Not my kind of party.”
“I’m not surprised about that.” She nibbled on her fingernail before looking up at me again, this time holding my gaze. “Will you be at the masked ball?”
“That, I could never miss.”
“Save a dance for me, then, Lore.”
“What would Merrick say about that?”
“I dance with who I please. I’m married to Merrick. I like him very much.” The color in her face suggested she might likehim more than very much, but I was not going to call her on it. “But I decide who I dance with or don’t.”
“He won’t protest.”
“You’re right.” Her sweet smile told me she was thinking of him. Of them touching. Talking. Being together in all the ways a couple could. “He’ll stand near the wall, grinning as we swirl across the floor.”
“I can picture it now.”
She started to walk past me, but I tapped her arm. She could’ve kept going, ignoring me, but she stopped, close enough I could taste her light scent in the air. Suck it into my lungs and fuse it to my very soul.
“Before you leave, would you . . .” I swallowed, and it scraped its way down like stone. “Come up onto the roof with me?”
40
REYLA
If he’d demanded I go up onto the roof with him, I would’ve shaken my head and walked away. But he’d asked, and I’d bet anything this man rarely asked anything of anyone. It told me this meant something to him.
