My eyes narrowed. “You don’t get to throw those words back at me.”
“Why not? Don’t pretend like you’d be upset if I died. I’ve been awful to you. I was sent to kill you. This would provide a diversion for youandget rid of the pesky assassin who’s been a thorn in your side from the beginning. There is no downside to this scenario.”
My eyes felt hot as I stared at him, taking in his calm expression. He uttered the words without an ounce of regret or sadness. He seemed perfectly content to accept his fate.
“Theron,” I said in a choked whisper, dropping my gaze. A lump lodged itself in my throat, cutting off my words.
“Don’t argue,” Theron said, his voice surprisingly gentle. “I know you still hate me. You haven’t been able to look at me once in the last hour.”
My eyes flew up to meet his in shock and indignation. “That isnottrue. I—I’m looking at you right now!”
He held my stare, unflinching. “Yes. But for how long?”
I blinked at him. He gazed right back at me. Testing me. My heart raced, then seized in my chest as the depths of those dark eyes drew me in.
He was looking at me like I was the only person in the world. A precious treasure he didn’t want to lose. Someone worth dying for.
Iwishedhe wouldn’t look at me like that.
And at the same time, I wished he would never stop.
My stomach fluttered. My toes curled. And damn it, I had to look away. I gasped for breath, struggling to calm my racing pulse as I closed my eyes.
“I knew it.” He sounded dejected.
I made a frustrated sound and fisted his tunic with both my hands, pulling him closer to me until our noses brushed. “Don’t presume to know me or my feelings,” I said through clenched teeth. “I donothate you.”
Theron’s face slackened in surprise, and damn if that didn’t send a bolt of satisfaction through my chest.
“You…confuseme,” I confessed. “And I don’t understand you. Sometimes you seem loyal to Calista without even realizing it. Other times, it seems like you’re onmyside and despise her as much as I do. You still can’t accept that she’s a Demon Fae. You risk your life to save mine, but you don’t believe I belong on the throne.”
“I never said?—”
“You didn’t have to,” I said softly. “I can feel it, Theron. I feel your disdain for me and my kind. You don’t believe humans belong in the Winter Court. You never did.”
He sighed, his frame sagging with defeat. His brows creased as a pained expression crossed his face.
“You’re right.”
My mouth fell open. I had expected him to argue or defend himself. I hadn’t expected him to agree with me. “What?”
“You’re right,” he repeated, and this time it was despair burning in his eyes. He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. In the next room, Stella and Denton were speaking in hushed tones, no doubt gossiping about our private conversation.
“Do you know why my father’s death affected me so much?” Theron asked.
I shook my head, confused about this subject change but intrigued enough to urge him to continue.
“For most of my life, my father saw humans as pests that needed to be stamped out of existence. He made it his life’s goal to obliterate them, starting with our court.” His nostrils flared, his gaze full of fire and anger.
“I grew up resenting humans. Not because my father taught me to hate them, but because they claimed his attention more than I did.” He sighed and looked away, and when his gaze met mine again, I couldn’t mistake the sadness I saw there, nor the hint of hurt and bitterness that were layered underneath it all. “He was so obsessed with his hatred for humans that he didn’t have time for me at all. And when he was killed, I was so incensed, so full of wrath because… Imissedhim. Because in spite of how he ignored me completely, I still loved him, and the emptiness he left in my heart made me angry at the injustice of it all.”
My heart twisted at his words. His relationship with his father was so different from my relationship with mine. While my father had been kind and nurturing, always supportive of me and never once causing me to doubt myself or my heritage… Theron’s father had been distant and unkind.
I swallowed the lump in my throat and stared at Theron as he continued, “Then, I was left with his contract to the queen. The debt he had incurred because of his war against humans. So, in truth, I was raised to hate humans. But not in the way you think. In my mind, humans took my father away from me. And so, I wanted nothing to do with them.”
He offered a wry laugh, his face twisting into a disgustedgrimace. “I tried so hardnotto become my father, lost in the bloodthirsty quest to destroy all humans, that I didn’t realize it still happened anyway. I may not have actively fought against the species, but my indifference was just as harmful.”
“Theron,” I whispered weakly.
