But then… so do intentions.
“You’re angry with me,” I say, refusing to look away from this face that scares me for reasons I can’t define.
His only reply is the sudden burst of dark light around his fingertips, flickering around and around his ring—the source of his power. When I first met him, I imagined taking his crown from his head, but I haven’t thought about taking it since.
“You disagree with the path I’ve chosen,” I persist, more quietly, still refusing to release his gaze.
“I do.”
“You think it’s dangerous.”
“It is.” His growl is deep and dark. “It’s fucking dangerous. It’s reckless and impulsive?—”
“But you can’t be surprised that I chose it,” I say, standing firm in the face of his objections.
He’s slower to respond this time. “I am not. You are who you are.”
“Then… will you help me achieve my goal?”
His features harden. “Do I have a choice?”
My lips part as I draw a quick breath.Of course he does.But my tongue stills before I can utter those words because maybe… that’s a lie.
“We made a deal,” he says, his voice becoming cold. “You have the power to choosehowwe complete it. So do I have a choice?”
He doesn’t. He’s bound to my vengeance, living and breathing by the power of my heart, and I have all the power right now.
“No,” I whisper. “You don’t.”
His features wipe clean of emotion, the dark light around his hands fades, and all of the anger and turmoil that was roiling around him seems to vanish into nothing.
“You chose not to lie,” he tells me, his voice flat.
“I don’t want to lie to you. Not ever.”
Maybe there was a time when I wouldn’t have hesitated to lie. I would have told myself it was merely my nature as a dark creature to tell untruths, but it would be a flimsy attitude after everything we’ve experienced together.
His response is silence. A long silence as he stands still, like he feels nothing at all.
I search his eyes, desperate to know his thoughts because the absence of feeling is even more shocking to me than the barrage of fury I sensed in him before.
“What are you thinking?” I ask at a whisper.
He turns away, stepping back, but I grab his arm, making him pause.
“What are you thinking?” I ask, more forcefully.
He tugs on my arm, a warning light in his eyes, as if my touch will make him snap.
I’m not about to back down. I reach for his face with my free hand. “Tell me!”
He is rapidly furious once more, his expression so savage that dark light breaks across his body, flickering around his lips and eyes and jaw like shadows trying to claim him.
He snarls back at me, “I’m thinking I don’t want to see you break.”
My eyes widen, my hand slipping from his arm.
“You won’t.” I swallow past the lump in my throat. “I won’t.”
