“No.”
I winced. He didn’t want me tending to his wings. Judging by the look on his face, he didn’t want me anywhere near him.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered. “I just —”
“What do you want, Lyra?” Kaden gritted, his gaze swinging around to capture mine.
There was no love or affection there. Only cold fury.
“I—” I shook my head, confusion and heartbreak swirling inside me.
I couldn’t tell him that I wanted things to go back to normal.
That I wanted him to call me “little huntress” and let me curl up on the mattress beside him.
I couldn’t tell him that I wanted to hold him through his nightmares, if only to reassure myself that he was here with me instead of rotting in that wretched cell.
So I said, “I just came up here to make sure you were all right.”
“I’m fine,” he huffed, ripping his gaze away. “Never better. Now you can go.”
For a moment, I just lay there on the pallet, staring up at the male I’d once known. Kadenlookedlike the half-demon prince, but there was no wicked gleam in his stormy gray eyes. No hint at some private joke. There wasn’t lust or amusement or . . . anything but this unabating coldness.
This was not my mate.
Grief and rage flooded me as I stared up into his broken face. I could read the pain and torment in his expression, but there was nothing I could say — nothing I could do — to take away whatever had been done to him.
Wordlessly, I pushed myself off the bed and stood, waiting for . . . what? For Kaden to change his mind and ask me to stay?
He didn’t.
Sliding through the opening and onto the ladder, I paused on my way down to stare at my mate.
Kaden knelt on the bed, his back to me. His injured wings drooped to the floor, and his head was bowed in defeat. Even his shadows seemed listless as they billowed around the pallet.
My heart ached at the sight.
I had no idea what they’d done to break the male I’d come to care for. I only hoped he would heal in time.
Chapter
Fourteen
LYRA
The next morning, Sorsha and Adriel were already downstairs by the time I dragged myself out of bed. The sound of their low-pitched voices rumbled up through the floorboards, though I couldn’t make out what they were saying.
Donning a pair of oversized breeches from the armoire in the corner, I tucked in my borrowed linen shirt and padded down the steps.
The two of them were seated at the small table by the hearth, their heads bent close in intense conversation. They fell silent as soon as they heard the squeak of the steps, and I didn’t think I’d imagined the look of relief that swept across Adriel’s face when he saw that it was me and not Kaden.
“What’s going on?” I asked, looking from one to the other.
“Porridge?” Sorsha squeaked, jumping to her feet and spooning up a generous helping of the concoction bubblingin a pot over the fire. “There’s tea as well. I can heat some water if you —”
Adriel cut her off with a scowl. “We can’t afford to hole up here while Kaden convalesces. If he won’t let anyone remove the splinters from his wings, his healing will be slow. We need to act before Semphrys does. By now he probably knows we have the hands, and he’ll guess what we intend to do with them. If his demons get to the Three first . . .” He glanced at Sorsha. “Then we are well and truly fucked.”
My stomach clenched. He was right. Just because Mirabella was gone didn’t mean her vampires wouldn’t continue to report to the Dark King.
