At my command, my shadows coiled tighter around me as I moved forward, looking for her.
Farris lay on the sofa. He cracked one eye open, and sensing me, his tail throbbed. It quickly stilled, and his eyes closed when sleep tucked him away.
I peered around, not finding Reyla. No ladies-in-waiting, either, who must've been dismissed for the night. After all, if Reyla wasn't coming to me, she would no longer need them.
My fingers twitched. Fury twisted its claws around my ribs, and I clenched my jaw as an emotion I couldn’t name stormed through me. It was an aching thing, bleak and unfamiliar. It humiliated me, gnawed at me with every passing tick of time. Something feral surged in its wake, sending me toward the closed bedroom door on my left.
The fog flowed with me, silent and cloying, mocking the sharp snap of my temper as I reached for the door. The panel gave with a faint creak as I pushed it inward.
Dark.
The air tasted like the rain falling in bitter tears outside. Her bedroom felt gloomy and heavy, as if the very room was determined to suffocate any sliver of warmth. Gray light seeped past the edge of her closed curtains, framing the bed…
…Where I heard a rustle, barely there, but unmistakable. My knuckles whitened as I clenched my fists at my sides. I stepped closer, keeping my pace as soft as her breathing. I stopped, locking my gaze on her form curled up on the bed. She lay on her side, buried beneath the blankets, her back to me as though the mere act of facing away would keep me from confronting her.
Pathetic. The thought stomped through me, its trail as sour as bile.
As I stood beside her bed, glaring down at her, words coiled inside me, harsh and barbed. They raked their way up my throat.
“So, this is what avoidance looks like.” My voice came out clipped and venomous, splitting the quiet like the crack of a branch. “You. Did. Not. Come to me.”
She grunted.
My laugh tore itself from me, sharp and hollow enough to send lethal pain through my heart. “I can't say that I'm surprised. I’m used to it by now. If someone wins your trust, it’ll never be the man who would willingly step into the shadows for you. Never the viper you’ve chained in the tower at the top of the stars.”
I expected her to roll over and snap at me to leave her alone. For her to spit defiance. I burned for her wrath because I’d take that over indifference. Anything but?—
A sound stopped me cold. Her tiny, weak moan broke through the room, faint and rough-edged like a blade dulled from overuse.
Reyla shifted beneath the blanket, her body curling tighter, her hands tangling in the folds of fabric. The sound came again, longer, cracked and utterly defeated.
The sharp edges lashing their way through me dissolved in an instant.
“Reyla.” Her name snagged in my chest, and my fists uncoiled at my sides.
Her scent, wildflowers and rain-soaked fields, hit my senses like a knife to the gut. I pulled the blanket back enough to reveal her tangled auburn hair and pale face pressed against the pillow.
She hissed, rubbing her belly, and my instincts took over. I climbed onto the bed and over her, my knees planting on either side of her. I gently cupped her face, tilting it toward me.
“Wildfire,” I breathed, terror crushing my ribs. “Look at me. Tell me what’s wrong.”
Her lashes fluttered against her flushed cheeks, sliding upward, and her murky gaze met mine. “Lorant. What are you doing here?”
She sounded too weak, too damaged to move or resist me. And that unleashed the beast inside me.
“Who touched you?” I snarled, my feral gaze slashing around the room. “Who hurt you? I. Will. Destroy them.”
12
Reyla
“Who hurt you?” Lorant growled, his feral gaze scanning the room.
I was too far gone to appreciate how willing he was to save me.
“Fucking flow,” I mumbled with mortification gnawing through my spine. But I was in too much pain to care if Lorant snarled at me, or if he tried to drag me up to the tower room to make me work on my magic. “Damn, fucking flow.”
“You…” As if he’d been mortally wounded, he collapsed onto the bed beside me, looking entirely too comfortable on my mattress. “You have yourflow?” He blinked at the ceiling. “You have your flow. How is thispossible?”
