“Nonsense,” the intruder returned, fingers tightening on my wrist. Near to bruising with the unspoken warning. “You have a living to make. To earn nothing from an item of such fine quality is a crime where I come from.”
I bristled with the implication, spluttering, the reprimand plain enough.
“Well,” the merchant breathed, each passing moment pulling him further from my influence. “If you insist—”
“I do.” The intruder dropped a few foreign coins into the merchant’s outstretched hand. “Besides,” he continued, full lips twitching when he met my bewildered scowl once more, “it’s my pleasure to part with the coin if it’ll buy me a few moments of the lady’s time.”
I wrenched my wrist free at last, pressing a trembling hand to my throat. “Do I look like a commodity?”
He turned those obsidian eyes down at me, invading my space with a single step. “You’ll have to excuse the presumption, but I rather think you’d prefer if Ididn’tsay what I think you are.”
“And I thinkyou’llexcuse my rudeness, but I don’t care what you think I am—”
“Asher. Captain Asher Rawlings of His Majesty’s Imperial Army.”
A Caledonian.
The heat rushed from my cheeks, taking my breath with it.
A Caledonian. Goddess, with all my power, how could I have been so bloody stupid? So blind?
I swallowed the bubble rising at the back of my throat, and said, “Right. Well, Captain Asher Rawlings of His Majesty’s Imperial Army, I don’t care what you think I am. Because whatever it is, I can assure you, you’re wrong.”
Asher hummed, low at the back of his throat. Inky eyes glittering with something I couldn’t name.
And then, without speaking another word or breaking eye contact, he removed his ring.
Chapter 2
An Elite.
Not just a ranking Imperial soldier, but a full-blooded, Caledonian Elite. It wasn’t the formal black and gold uniform, the dark hair and eyes, or the tanned, bronze skin that gave it away. No. It was his ki.
Brilliant. Blinding.Beautiful.
So muchmorethan anything I’d ever felt before. Next to him, the merchant was nothing. A blip of empty space, forgotten as soon as my gaze moved away.This man, this Elite was impossible and wrong, for I’d heard tales of the Imperial ki-wielders, but nothing in working memory could match the fire burning through my veins. My blood. More powerful than anything I’d ever sensed, his ki breezed past the Glaith’s protection. Stunning me into complete stillness with nothing more than his touch.
My head fell back as a set of large, calloused hands landed on the bare skin of my shoulders. Steadying me.
Goddess, his touch! His wasnota secret whisper beckoning me closer, but a primal demand that sent power surging through my veins, pendant be damned.
“H-How?” I breathed.
He shook his head, lips tight, eyes fixed to my face as he jerked his chin toward the exit. “A word? In private?”
The breath leaked from my lungs in a single, slow exhale. “A… word?” I returned, blinking, ensnared by his foreign, inky gaze. Such power! It called to me, even through the Glaith, setting my skin ablaze. Urging me to toss years of caution into the flames. Sobeautiful…
“Come,” he said, and—point made—returned the ring to his smallest finger.
A tiny, fractured sound burst from my lips at the loss and the ensuing wash of numbing cold, and I stumbled forward, reaching. “Wait—”
The intruder turned without answer, pulling me from the tent as if he had any right to touch me, let alone direct where I went. But… I didn’t fight like I might have. Like Ishouldhave. Didn’t resist his touch on my skin.
Irelishedit.
“Thank you, sir,” the merchant trilled. “It’s been a pleasure to do business with one of the Empire’s finest.” He waved, baring a golden tooth and glossy smile, his pockets heavy with Caledonian gold. So far removed from my influence that his fatherly instincts didn’t seem to mind me being pulled from the tent by a man who thought he could buy my time.
Without a backward glance, the captain steered me through the crowd of my country-folk with a rough hand on my upper arm. Dark eyes flicking from face to face. Ceaseless. Vigilant.
