Again, she stopped. Again, she reached for the back of her neck, shoulders hunching, a chill kissing its nape. She turned, almost completely this time, just as Ronan’s eyes shot open.
He knew where she was.He sawher. That wasn’t a dream, not even a vision. It was real time.
She was awake and prowling.
Smoke snatched a cloak from its hook, throwing it over his bare shoulders as he moved. He grabbed the half-drained glass, held it to the firelight, gold and amber flaring in the depths.
He stared at it for a heartbeat, then sighed, bringing it to his lips. “Aero is going to kill me.”
The hood shadowed half his face, cloaking the sharp lines as he stalked her down the narrow cobblestone road.
Nothing about her looked menacing.
She laughed as she walked with a villager, braid swaying with each step. The picture of harmless, of someone hiding a curse well.
If not for the snare in his chest, it would have been seamless. He might have almost believed her ordinary.
But he knew better.
He pulled the cloak tighter, fire blooming in his chest to chase away the chill. She hadn’t sensed him again. Not yet, at least. She paused as the villager vanished into a doorway, tilting her head back, three fingers rising to the coming stars.
Three fingers for three kingdoms.
Odd for her to pray to the same gods who damned her. He wondered if she would look up at them the same way when he cut out her soul.
Temptation hovered at his hands, fingers flexing as the slam of a door closing left them alone. He could do it now, drag her into the shadows, spill prophecy from her lungs, feel the spray of destiny end hot against his skin.
A hand slid to the hilt at his hip, the dagger singing as it eased free, steel catching the last glint of Aelia’s light.
He would kill her, for his freedom, for his future. He would peel the curse from her body and rip her heart out with his teeth.
He would not be shackled. Not by fate. Not by gods.
Nothing would stop him.
Especially not a vindictive little viper cloaked in twilight.
Breath dragged through him, vanilla and amber, and as his step faltered, so did hers. Instinct caught him, motion dying instantly.
He was far enough back to stay unseen but close enough to feel the shift, the prickling awareness that sparked over her skin and onto his. It was subtle,the tilt of her head, as if she could hear every thought scraping through his skull.
He moved, fast, pressing his spine against a crate bedside an empty shop. That tether yanked, making his teeth grind together. Stillness stretched and she lingered in it, too still, too stealthy.
But she didn’t turn the corner in time. Didn’t catch him.
Before she had the chance, he’d slipped elsewhere, gone into a whisper of mist, the sift carrying him without thought or aim. Onlyaway.
Because for the first time in a long time, Ronan wasn’t sure if he was the predator. Or the prey.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Verena
SOMETHING HAD FOLLOWED ME.
A shadow that moved a breath before I did, a warmth that collapsed the chill of twilight.
It crept up the back of my neck like fingers tracing the column of my throat. A heat that didn’t belong.
