“Just wait ’til the king hears about this,” the other one snarls.
When they storm off, I climb into the carriage and sit on the bench across from Thane. I hold on to the edge of the seat as we lurch forward. It’s only us in the dark, velvet confines—our bodies jostling with every dip and bump over the rocky path.
“I cannot believe you did that,” I finally mutter when we’re a third of the way there. “It’s like youwantsomeone to kill you.”
He doesn’t dare look at me. Instead, he peers out the nearest window, watching the courtyard glow from a distance.
I scoff. “I don’t understand you at all.”
“I never asked to be understood,” he returns, eyes still focused out the window.
“Whatever.” I fold my arms. “You need to apologize to Prince Kelrean.”
“Apologies are only necessary when regret is felt.” He turns his dark gaze to me. “I don’t regret making your pretty prince bleed.”
“You know what, Thane? You are being beyond childish right now. You just punched aprincein the face in his own kingdom! They could’ve killed you for that!”
“They wouldn’t have succeeded.”
“He was being kind to you!”
“He’s full of shit.”
“You think that about everyone!” My voice rises a few notches. I don’t even fully understand why I’m yelling. Probably because I’m pissed that he’s keeping his voice so calm while I’m getting worked up. That has always irritated me. Analla would do it all the time whenever we had a disagreement. “I’m capable of making my own choices. You know that, right? I hired you to protect me when there’s danger. I didn’t ask you to watch me like a hawk during the times I’m actually enjoying myself.”
“I’m watching you because you trust too easily,” he fires back. “That heinous trait of yours is why you’re in this situation now. Because you hired a man youhardlyknow and put way too much faith in him.”
“And every step I take with you makes me regret that choice a little more,” I say under my breath.
After a stretch of silence, I sigh and lean forward, cradling my chin in my hands.
His eyes narrow, and he leans in, too, as he studies all the features of my face. “Are you sure about that, Quinlocke? Because when I look into your eyes, I don’t see regret.”
“No?” My pulse quickens. I hate how sexy he looks with the moon bathing half of his face, revealing the wicked scars I want to trace with the pad of my thumb. “What do you see, then,Valkor?”
He doesn’t flinch at the name like I thought he would. “I see hope, even when matters are unfavorable. You reserve it for me because you’re hoping you can find the light in my soul, but there is no light.” He pauses. “Do you want to know what else I see?”
I hold my breath as his face comes closer. “What?”
“Passion,” he murmurs. His lips are only inches from mine. “Hunger.Desire.You hate yourself for wanting a person like me, don’t you?”
He’s just as close as Kelrean was earlier, only with Thane, I can feel my pulse in places I never thought it could pump. “I never said I wanted you.”
“You don’t have to say it.” His eyes drop to my lips, then slowly to my breasts, lingering for just a moment before climbing right back up to my eyes. “It’s very clear.”
I clench my teeth together, refusing to look away even though he’s right.
Gods, I hate that he’s right.
“Going to that little prince’s chambers will be nothing more than a distraction for you, and we both know it.”
“How did you—”
“He’s not hard to read, Quinlocke. Everyone saw the way he stared at you. Treating you like you belong to him. The night was bound to end in one way—with you in his chambers.”
“So you’re jealous, then? Is that it?”
As rare as it is, his lips quirk up on one side, amused. “Not jealous. Territorial, more like.”
