Did she say that out loud?
“Yes, and you just said that out loud, too. If it’s any consolation, I think you smell nice as well. Like femaleness.” She hears the smile on his lips.
She punches his chest and lifts herself up. “I swear to Sqaõi, Prince, I will—” But what she’ll do she never gets around to saying,because that’s when she sees him. The unconscious man. Mikhael’s lying on the floor, his skin gray as grit. It comes flooding back to her then—where she is, what she saw. What Zryan did.He cut his damn fingers off!She scuttles away, backing against the buttress.
“Did you have to hit him that hard?”
“I may have been overzealous, but I couldn’t let him see you.” Zryan is on his knees, watching her intently. “Take it easy—you hit your head on the wall before I caught you.” So that’s why it feels like bells are ringing inside her skull. “Are you going to tell me why you’re skulking around our cells, Dimples?”
Any trace of tenderness is now gone.
“What, you not going to torture it out of me?”
“Only if you ask me nicely. We’ll need a safe word, though.”
“This is not a time for jokes.”
“It’s not?” He slowly gets to his feet and straightens out his leather jacket. “I’ve just caught the Arturean princess spying on the king of Vatra while I torture a rebel for information. If we can’t joke at a time like this, then when can we?”
She wants to admonish him for his cruelty and irreverence, but then, she has been caught spying and she’s not sure what Zryan is going to do about that.
He walks over and offers his hand, but she waves him off. “I’m just going to sit for a second.” Her head is swimming, the memory of pain still flowing through her. What happened to Skylar? The last thing Astrid remembers is a searing ice-cold agony, as if every bone in her body was freezing, and then nothing. “How long was I out for?”
“A few minutes. I tried to Teleport with you….” He trails off, slipping a hand in his pocket. “Felt like the longest fucking minutes of my life.” Of course it did. He must have thought his sister was dying; and by the way he looks like someone exsanguinated him, he’s genuinely worried about Skylar. Which feels at odds with what Astrid just witnessed. Her attention is drawn back to the man in the cell. To the blood on Zryan’s clothes.
“He’s one of the rebels,” she says.
“Yes, he is.”
“He trusts you. After whatever Mjolnir showed him?” What did Mjolnir show him? That Zryan sympathizes with the rebel cause?
He nods slowly. “Yes.”
“He’s rescuing conscripts. And you, you’re…” He’s what, exactly? He sliced off two of the guy’s fingers. Threatened to cut off his hand. Sent his father away and played a different part altogether, the role of someone who might be on the rebels’ side. Then punched him so hard he’s still unconscious. She remembers the man in the square when they first arrived, how Zryan didn’t bat an eyelid when Bruma ate him. She glances at Mikhael. “You tricked him into helping you. What you did with your father—is it some kind of interrogation double act?”
She doesn’t like the idea of that, not one bit. What if he’s playing her? The whole cocky charm, the nickname, saving her… What if it’s all a ploy, to earn her trust? She desperately doesn’t want Zryan to be capable of that—she needs him to be different. Why that is, she doesn’t want to examine too closely. She reaches for her tincture but stops herself. Not in front of Zryan.
His jaw clenches. “Is that what you think of me?”
“I don’t know what to think of you. I don’t know you.”
His eyes are like blades, piercing her. “Do you want to know me?”
Does she? She’s resolved to stay away from him; promised herself she’ll concentrate on what matters, and what matters is whatever helps her to help her people. What’s frustrating is, Zryan could probably be of some use. All she has to do is talk to him, to ask him about the Heart. But after what she just witnessed, she’s not sure if she can.
She pushes herself to her feet and wobbles slightly. He’s there in an instant, wrapping an arm around her waist.
“Let me help.”
“I don’t need help. It’s just my ego smarting again.”
He chuckles that sexy chuckle. “Don’t be stubborn, Dimples.”
He holds her tighter and she doesn’t pull away, telling herself she needs the support. Really, she likes the feel of his hard body pressed against hers, and she finds it incredibly disturbing that she thinks this while a man is unconscious on the floor. She can like the feel of him and not trust him, right? That’s par for the course with men. “How did you even know I was here?”
“I heard something, when I threatened to cut his hand off.” He gives her a dark smile. “Then I saw you when I asked the Dreki to leave.”
The two severed fingers catch her eye, literally throwing her a “fuck you” and she pulls out of Zryan’s hold, a modicum of shame rearing its head. She leans against the wall, still dizzy.Focus. She needs to focus, and she can’t while she’s distracted by the prince.
