“Where are we?” I pressed, undeterred. I’d gone on little sustenance for weeks. I could hold out a few more minutes until I got answers.
The Issaraeth didn’t speak. Merely held my gaze with a cold, detached air. Yet the riot of emotion down our bond told me he was anything but.
At least we were in agreement on that front. The abhorrence. The disdain. The confusion.
A minute passed, then another, as we held our staredown. I refused to be the first to break.
“Do I need to Command you?” he finally said, a dark brow lifting.
Thatinfuriated me. “Is that what you will resort to any time I do not do what you wish?”
“It can be. Don’t tempt themonster.”
He flung the word I’d used against him back with a sardonictone. I couldn’t tell if he was bluffing or not. My better judgement told me he wasn’t.
So, reticently, I picked up the fork and speared it into my food. The first bite of fish was divine. The potatoes? Decadent. All restraint fell away, and I shoveled the entire plate into my greedy belly.
By the time I finished the food and drained the last of the juice, I felt immensely better. Any lingering fuzziness from whatever potion they’d used to knock me out had dissipated. The pain relief the healer had given me had taken effect.
Which meant all my focus went to ire directed at my Goddess-cursed fated mate.
He steepled his fingers, elbows digging into the sides of the chair, and watched me. His expression was unreadable. I probed against the barrier to his mind, finding a solid wall there, much like the one I’d erected on my side.
“So…” I began, unsure what I wanted from him other than answers. “What did the healer say about my knee?”
“Shattered kneecap,” he replied, tone flat and merciless. Just like him.
The Issaraeth slid a knife into my heart with those two words. I closed my eyes as I absorbed the news. Even with our fast-healing abilities and the additional potions I’d take, repairing the damage done would take a month, if not more. And after that?
I may never dance again.
The one good thing I had in this world, gone in an instant. Overtaken by the destiny I’d sought to outrun.
“I hate you.” The words slipped out before I could stop them.
He really did ruin everything for me, didn’t he?
“I know,” came his reply. Yet beneath the harshness of his tone was something more…vulnerable. Tormented, even.
His comment about not being able to be any more miserable than he already was drifted back to me.
What could he have possibly meant by that?
“We’re in Stadur. Have been for a day now after I flew you over the forest to get you to a healer.”
I opened my eyes and looked at him again.
This time, he glanced away, a muscle feathering in his jaw. “Didn’t want you to suffer.”
This male was an enigma.
“Because you’d caused enough already for me? Or because the bond was being annoying about it?” I questioned. At the mention of the chain linking our fates, it rattled in my chest. I’d been unconscious for days, which meant that the Issaraeth hadn’t claimed me.
And oh, how it roared its fury.
With a grimace, like he heard the bellow too, my mate met my gaze again. “We’ll set out tomorrow for Sivy. I’ve arranged for a cart so you won’t have to walk or ride a horse.”
There he went, not answering my questions again.
