I felt his gaze on my cheek. “It’s gone to their heads.”
“They’re obsessed with you.”
I scoffed. “Flynn is obsessed with getting me into his bed, and Grayson wants to control me.”
“And the other two?”
“I don’t know what they want.”
“I do. They want you.”
“I have no reason to trust them, and every reason not to.” Iglanced up at the canopy of dark branches. “How far are we from Talin?”
“Less than three days.”
That meant at least two more days of avoiding conversation with the Legacians. I sighed.
“You’ll have to talk to them sometime.”
“Can you read my mind?”
“Just your gorgeous face.”
I turned my definitely-not-gorgeous face away to hide my blush. “The things they’ve done. I can’t?—”
“What did they do?” Zane’s warm growl turned cold. Deadly.
Telling him wouldn’t change things. It would only cause problems. I offered him a weak smile. “Don’t ask vexing questions.”
His brows rose. “We’re back to vexing?”
I couldn’t help but smile. “We never left.”
Chapter
Fifty-Eight
PIERCE
Irode in silence, immune to every sound except for the snow crunching steadily beneath our horses’ hooves and Haven’s laughter. She was laughing with the giant. Each lilting note was a blade twisting in my gut. We might be fated, but I knew she’d never laugh like that with me. Not after what I had and hadn’t done.
Behind me, Teal and Flynn whispered plans for wooing Haven. They didn’t get it. This wasn’t about strategy or tactics or seduction—this was about the fact that we’d destroyed any chance we had with her. Especially me. I’d silently watched Drake accost and whip her. I hadn’t saved her from the pit. And then I’d fallen for her. Miraculously, despite everything, she’d given me a chance, and I’d blown it.
My rejection had hurt her, and I hadn’t had a chance to explain before the basajaun took her from us.
But if I could explain what really happened … I hadn’t meant to pull away from her. But if I’d been kissing her when Grayson opened his eyes, he’d have lost it. If I could make her understand Grayson’s rules, his psychology, his damaged relationships with women, she’d understand. Haven wasn’t cruel. She wouldn’t reject me out of spite. Though now that I knew we were bound by fate itself, the stakes felt impossibly higher. Being rejected by a woman you desired was one thing. Being rejected by the woman fate had chosen for you? That felt like a cosmic failure.
I tapped my heels against Frode’s flanks, and he hurried his trot until I drew even with Haven and Zane. “Haven, can we talk?”
She didn’t even glance my way. “About?”
“What happened at the inn.”
Her shoulders stiffened. “I don’t think there’s much to say.”
“There is.” I glanced at the giant on her other side. “Can we talk in private?”
She stared straight ahead. “No need for that, Pierce. We fought rebels. We won. You kissed me. And then”—her chin lifted—“you were embarrassed that you’d done it.”
