It was subtle but undeniable, coming to him first in the air, a barely-there wave curling off her skin, slipping beneath his own.
Her pulse wasn’t racing, it was slowing, deepening, each beat drumming through the space between them in time with a power older and more dangerous.
The curse had grown the moment she felt recognized. Not the rebel, or the Viper, but the caged thing underneath.
And as much as Ronan respected the spark it lit in her, if she became a weapon more than she already was, a version neither of them could control—
It wouldn’t just be her enemies who should be afraid.
It would be the whole damned continent.
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
Verena
NOT KNOWING EXACTLY WHERE WE WERE was uncomfortable.
The only familiarity was the hum of magic beneath the forest floor and
the quiet lingering in the air.
Not home, not Csolenia, but still the realm that raised me.
Still Luamis.
And the Bale hadn’t tainted it yet.
At least, not here. Wherever here was.
I couldn’t smell the ocean's salt, couldn’t hear the whisperings of the creatures beneath the swell. Ronan had said our camp was further south, but we weren’t yet near the shore of Tempest Tide.
Movement drew my attention to Killian, his hands brushing over the swerved spine of a stallion. He stood at least four inchesoversix feet tall, yet the horse still had two hands on him.
I prowled closer, and only when I was a foot away did his hand still on the horse’s muzzle.
“Verena Vale,” he greeted, attention still fused ahead. “Good to see you up and about without vengeance in your eyes.” Glancing over his shoulder, he chucked, “Oh wait—” His finger pointed at my tensed fists, then he winked.
Gods spare me, not another arrogant brute.
Okay, start off slowly. You want honesty, Verena.
I could remember Killian and Nezra in the cell, then she left and Killian had a roguish, stirring gleam settling in his eyes before he chanted some nonsense.
A burn had flared, first behind my ear, like he had burned a hole into the back of my thoughts. Then at my wrists and ankles right before I inevitably, and embarrassingly, passed out.
No recollection of what he had said. No memories after the darkness caught me until I woke up in that tent.
Just be nice. Maybe thank him,thenask him why.
“Why did you rescue us?” I blurted.
So much for subtlety. Well, I tried.
He paused, head tilting upwards. I didn’t need to see his face to know his stare was fixed on the mountain, the sun’s warm light cresting its peak.
“I never could resist a damsel in distress,” he said, wiping his hands on the worn brown of his armor.
I pictured him in the iridescent hue the Angels had worn in that memory; the leather just didn’t match him. But the color of the clouds sure did.
