Alizeh held his eyes as she knocked the specimen to the floor, where it landed with a crash, glass shattering everywhere. She reached out to knock over another when he said, in a low, lethal voice—
“Stop.”
She knocked over the second one.
“Alizeh.”
He said her name like an epithet, the sound lancing through her like a blade. She looked up in time to see that he was advancing toward her now with a fiendish gleam in his eyes, like he was going to pick her up and throw her over his shoulder and—and do something, she didn’t know what, andshe quickly spun around, swinging her sword toward him, pointing it in his direction to keep him where he was.
“Don’t take another step,” she said, panicking just a little.
There was something terrifying, yes, but also glorious about Cyrus as he stood there, shirtless and unrepentant, without a weapon, entirely unafraid. She was actually trembling a little.
He did not strike her as the kind of person who bluffed.
“You forgot,” he said softly, touching his hand to the blade she pointed at him, and making it disappear. “That I don’t fight fair.”
Alizeh stumbled back and stared, in astonishment, at her empty hands, and then up at him. Cyrus wasted no time closing the distance between them, moving now with unrelenting determination. She hurried backward desperately.
“Don’t you dare pick me up,” she cried, her heart racing in her chest. “I just want what’s mine! It’s not polite to pick people up against their will!”
Inches away, Cyrus came to a halt.
“It’s notpolite?” he said, stunned. “Alizeh, it’s notpoliteto break into people’s private rooms. It’s notpoliteto tear down people’s doors and destroy their things—”
“For the hundredth time,” she said, exasperated, “I broke your door by accident! I was only trying to find a place to hide before the maid walked in!”
This gave him pause.
“The maid?” He frowned. “You mean the snoda who entered my room,” he said, pointing in the direction of his room, “and screamed so loudly in my face she woke me up?”
Alizeh nodded. “When she knocked, I didn’t know what to do. I knew I couldn’t be found in your bedroom or it would cause a huge scandal, so I yanked open the first door I found—”
“Yanked it open?” he cried. “You practically tore the door off its hinges!”
“I know that, and I’m sorry! Sometimes—not often—but sometimes, when I’m in a panic, I forget how strong I am, and I break things, and I’m very sorry.” She was wringing her hands now. “I swear, I’d fix it if I could, but I’ve never been any good with carpentry; though I did once, in one of my other positions, have to mend the legs of a chair I’d accidentally snapped off, and which I managed to repair, luckily, with a rather powerful adhesive before the housekeeper found out—”
At that, the fight seemed to leave his body.
“Alizeh,” he said, turning away with a sigh. “You don’t have to fix my blasted door.”
“Nevertheless,” she said, swallowing. “While it should be noted that I’m stillfuriouswith you for stealing what’s mine, I swear I didn’t enter this room with malicious intent.”
He looked up at her then, a slight line forming between his brows. “You really mean that.”
“Of course I do.”
“So you didn’t”—his frown deepened—“you didn’t come here tonight with the express purpose of retrieving your book? Or rummaging through my things?”
“No.”
“You have no intention of triple-crossing me?”
“What?” She almost laughed. “No.”
He shook his head, as if trying to clear it. “Then what on earth are you doing here?”
“I already told you, I was running from the maid—”
