Another thought crossed her mind. “Is that what you told Amira?” she asked.
“What gave you that impression?”
“I was wondering why Karwyn’s fiancée is in Carnylen and not by his side. You two seem to be…close. Or you were.”
Rhay shut down, his gaze clouded. “She’s my best friend’s fiancée. That’s all.”
Lora exhaled before risking another question. “What were you arguing about the day Karwyn introduced us?”
“It was nothing,” Rhay said. “Look, Amira isn’t needed in Turosian right now and her father was close with Tarnan. He invited her to explore Pyria. It has nothing to do with me.”
Of course, Amira would stay in Carnylen’s capital, at the palace. But Lora knew there had to be more behind Amira’s sudden trip into the adjoining kingdom. “I wasn’t trying to imply anything,” Lora said. “I’m just confused why Amira is with Tarnan when he’s competing against her fiancé. Isn’t that a conflict of interest?”
“Youaretrying to imply something,” Rhay replied, studying her too closely for comfort.
Lora refused to back down. “I wouldn’t need to if you gave me a straight answer.”
“You’re a curious one, aren’t you, love?”
“How can I not be when everyone’s so damn secretive? You’re right.” She bit her lip before forcing out her next words. “Iaman Adelway. So why am I still on the outside?”
Rhay started playing with one of the gold buttons on his jacket. “Karwyn doesn’t open up easily. I don’t see you being much better at it.”
“Don’t—” She sneered before cutting herself off.Compare us,she finished in her head. Rhay looked at her expectantly. “Don’tdeflect.I’m not only talking about Karwyn. You’re not telling me everything either. And Amira almost bit my head off every time I tried to talk to her.”
“Some things are better left unsaid. Trust me on that,” Rhay said, his voice small. He cleared his throat as he got up from the bench. “Let’s start training before Layken catches us in flagrante.” He winked. “It’s time you step up your game, love.”
Training was the last thing on her mind, but she knew she’d hit a wall. She would have to wait to tear it down.
Another idea occurred to her. If she could get close enough to Rhay, maybe she could convince him to get her a new phone since he was familiar with Chrysa and its market.
“Fine,” Lora said, uncrossing her legs. “But just so you know, leaving things unsaid doesn’t mean you can avoid them forever. They always come back to haunt you later.”
Rhay’s smile slipped for a second before a wide grin replaced the previous one. “Then I say let them haunt me. It’ll be a fucking party.” He laughed, but it didn’t reach his eyes, leaving Lora to wonder how many terrible secrets Rhay was leaving unsaid.
Chapter18
Eyden
Eyden had never expected to be looking forward to going to a fancy event. Sitting around in his apartment, staring at the palace map and all his notes until they turned blurry in front of his eyes, was slowly driving him insane. He couldn’t stand on the sidelines any longer, not when Elyssa was out there risking everything and Lora was…doing whatever she didn’t trust him with.
Elyssa had been gone for three days now, and Eyden could hardly sleep. When he wasn’t dreaming about his sister being killed or Lora disappearing into thin air, his guilty conscience made sure to keep him awake.
He hated how he and Elyssa had left things. They’d had fights before, but it had never escalated to such intense disappointment coming from his sister. Anger he knew, but this was so much more—and he couldn’t blame her. She was right, he’d damned himself.
The truth was, Eyden wouldn’t have been so desperate for silver if he had stopped playing with fire when he had still been able to.
Gambling had been fun at first, a means to make some silver, an adrenaline rush. It was worth the risk when he had won most of the time. But he’d never had that much on the line…except the time he had played against Rahmur Piers, the fortae trader. That time, Eyden had losteverything.
Shaking off the memory, Eyden grabbed his dark grey jacket before heading out into the dark night. Worry was his dreaded companion these days. The only relief Eyden had was that Elyssa had made good on her promise, sending Farren a fire message once she’d arrived in Carnylen. She was fine—for now.
Eyden still wasn’t sure what his plan was. Every time he saw Lora, all he could think was:Why is she choosing to stay?He needed to accept that he wasn’t going to get an answer. He had replayed her last words to him a million times.It was a mistake.
Tonight, it was going to be all about business. Even if it was all a lie to him.
Ilario was waiting for him around the corner of the dark alley leading to his apartment.
“Eyden,” Ilario said in greeting. His voice was lacking his usual enthusiasm.
