“Lorant.” My hoarse cry echoed in the room as I grabbed his shoulders and dragged him onto his back, shaking him. His head lolled.
I pressed my ear to his chest, and the steady beat of his heart reassured me.
He sucked in one breath of air. Another. And barked out a groan, his hands jerking up to palm his face.
“Get out of here,” he snarled. “Can’t…see me like this.”
“You’re hurt. What happened?”
“I amfine.”
“You don’t look fine,” I snarled right back at him. “I thought you were dead.”
“It’ll take more than that to kill me. But don’t worry, Wildfire. If you stay around long enough, you’ll findyour reward.”
“I don’t actually want you dead,” I said in a stilted way, sounding as prissy as he’d first assumed me to be.
He nudged me to the side and lurched upright, turning to sit, pressing his back against the bed. His sneering gaze met mine and pinned me in place. “I told you to leave.”
“You don’t get any say in this.”
One of his eyebrows jerked up. “Do you truly believe that? If anything, I have all the say in this.”
“Not if you hope to make use of yourwillingbride.”
“You should leave. Run from the castle and never come back. We’ll only ruin you, destroy you.”
“Forget that for now. I’m here. You’re here. And I still want answers.” My growl clawed through my lungs. “Are you two separate people or…” I couldn’t believe I was even thinking this, but I needed to know. “Or are you one person who’s been…I don’t know, split?”
He blinked but said nothing.
“Speak, damn you. Are you two individuals sharing one body because of, well, the curse?”
He stared right at me, unblinking, his face cratering, his mouth pinching closed. So much agony in his eyes. It was all I could do not to hug him, to tell him this would be alright.
I suspected it would never be alright.
Where had my fury gone, my rage?
It had been ripped out of me when he collapsed, and I thought he was dead.
I turned and settled beside him, leaning against the bed, our arms and legs brushing together. It was past time I found that dragon aerie, past time I climbed onto one of them and flew away from this wretched place. I wouldn’t leave forever, though the urge to do so kept roaring through me.
The thing is, I’d run after Kinart died and again to this placewhere I thought I could lock my past inside a box and pretend it never existed.
I suspected if I ran this time, there would be no compartmentalizing whatever this was between me and Merrick and Lorant. And while that made frustration drag its nails across my skin, I’d changed enough over the last few months to know that running never fixed anything. Whatever you fled came with you. It would still rear up and slash your heart wide open when you least expected.
“I’m going to tell you what I know, and you’re going to listen,” I said. If I wasn’t staring up at him, I would’ve missed his blink. “Indicate if I’m right.”
When my brother told a lie,heblinked. What, if anything, could a blink reveal about Lorant?
Maybe nothing or everything.
“If I’m correct with a statement, would you blink?” I asked.
His gaze remained locked on mine, and he slow-blinked. I’d take that as agreement—for now.
“You’re Lorant.”
