Did she think me the cold, logical brother right now? Little did they all know, I wasburningupinside the majority of the time.
“Do it, little Seren,” I purred. “My little fallen star from the universe. I am aKyzaire, after all, and you should know better than to disobey me. Or—”
She lifted onto her toes, her mouth crashing into mine. Immediately, I pushed her roughly back into the tree, angry and needing her and desperate for her kiss. I squeezed my fist into her short, silky hair to keep it from trembling. I devoured her just as she devoured me. Our tongues stroked together, tangling. I dropped her other hand, and my hard touch roamed, possessive and brash and shameless, squeezing her to me.
Her own hands curled into my chest. I felt the bite of her fingernails through the thick fabric, the prick making me buck my hips against her. Millie was making tiny desperate sounds in the back of her throat, threading through her lips and between mine. I groaned, my wings wrapping around us, shielding us from the chill of the night until we were cocooned together.
“Millicent,” came the sharp word, piercing through our private veil.
She stiffened in my arms.
Whipping my head around, I growled, the intrusion unwelcome. Ancient instincts rose—ones that told me to protect what was mine, to keep what was mine. I was still dazed from the kiss, from the haze of her scent. Mykyrana’s scent. It took me a moment to realize that Millie was utterly frozen, her face paling in the darkness when she spied who stood at the bottom of the alley’s path.
“My apologies,Kyzaire,” Lesana said, her tone cool though she wore a serene smile that belied the sharpness in her gaze. “Millicent is needed in the kitchens.Now.”
CHAPTER20
MILLIE
Kythel’s palm was pressed to my belly, the touch oddly soothing and protective. Intimate, even. But I gripped his wrist, pulling the touch away, and slipped between the gap of his wing and the tree trunk.
I felt sinking dread when I met Lesana’s eyes. Completely opposite from the passionate rush I’d experienced in Kythel’s kiss, the way my heart had beat madly in my breast and I’d clamored for more.Neededmore. A momentary insanity.
And a costly one,I thought next, recognizing the icy anger in her gaze.
“Millie,” Kythel said, his voice a rumbling growl. Husky and dark. Different.
Meeting his eyes, I told him, “Go back to your guest,Kyzaire. You’ve already kept her waiting long enough.”
His jaw tightened, that familiar mask dropping into place as he straightened to his full height. I swallowed the thick lump of regret in my throat and stepped away from him, my strides eating up the distance between Lesana and myself.
I left Kythel in the dark alley, following the seething lady of RaanaDyaaninside. She wove her way down the main entrance hallway, past the lounge doors, past the bustling common room, the laughter and commotion making me feel mildly ill.
She led me to her private office, the one she shared with Draan when he was helping with the accounts and client payments. Closing the door behind her, she swung to face me.
The stinging slap that landed on my cheek made me cry out in surprise. I stumbled back, the force of her strength sending me into the wall. My hand flew up to my face. Itburned.
What was most unsettling was that Lesana merely clasped her hands behind her wings afterward, leveling me a steady stare. Outwardly, she didn’t even look angry. Only, I saw the shielded fury in the lines of her mouth, which was even quirked up at one corner.
“I trusted you,” she said.
The accusatory words filled the office. I was beginning to regain my composure, my shock over being struck. I’d been struck once before, when I’d been a child. We’d been living in a wealthy household on Bartu, my father employed by the owners. I’d been friends with their son, who’d been of similar age to myself. We’d been playing. In our roughhousing, he’d broken a priceless vase, an heirloom of the family. He’d blamed it on me, and his mother had struck me with her rough, taloned hand, leaving fresh welts of red blood.
My father had been furious. I’d never seen him so angry in my life—my normally calm and serene father had cursed up a storm and smashed another vase on his way out. Despite the fact that we’d needed the credits desperately, he’d packed us up and we’d left that very moment, leaving the couple in the lurch for a large dinner party they’d been throwing the next day. I remember the Bartu boy crying black tears as we’d left, sad to be losing his friend.
That memory surfaced now. Even though the Bartu mother had drawn my blood, it was Lesana’s strike that had hurt even more.
“I trusted you.I took you into mydyaanwhen you hadnothing,” she said quietly. “When you were sleeping in a storage room of an inn and stealing scraps of food from the market. And this is how you show me your respect? Your gratitude for my kindness?”
She was going to fire me. I could feel it, a terrifying chill in my bones.
“I’m sorry,” I said quickly, desperate and frightened at the prospect that the steady stream of credits I’d had coming in would dry up in a single moment. I was barely even halfway to my goal to get passage off Krynn to Horrin. “Lesana, I’m sorry. He hasn’t fed from me! It was just a kiss. A stupid kiss. It won’t happen again, I promise. Just please…pleaselet me stay. I’ll do whatever you ask.”
“Draan warned me,” Lesana continued, like I’d never even spoken. “He told me I was being too kind. Now my kindness has threatenedeverything.”
“It’s threatened nothing,” I said, adding strength I didn’t feel to my voice. I needed to reason with her. It was the only way. “Lesana, listen to me.Please.I will do whatever it takes to prove that—”
“You will not be the one to ruin this for my House,” she said, her voice clipped but soft. “You.A human who doesn’t even belong on Krynn. Who comes from nothing. Who has no one. And yetyourisk it all for our great House.”
