He arches an eyebrow at me. “Which are?”
“The first option is to stop touching me.”
His lips compress. “Or?”
I lean forward, moving myself away from his hand but raising my own toward his heart. Maybe it doesn’t count because my hand is encased in a mitten, but…
“What if I were to touch you back?”
My hand hovers in front of his chest while his eyebrows rise. Then lower.
“That may make things worse,” he says. “If you aren’t afraid to touch me.”
“Not if it’s clear that I’m…” Withdrawing my hand, I purse my lips, uncertain how to phrase it, my forehead crinkling. “You must have had lovers. Surely, they’re the exception.”
He remains unyielding. “Would you really want it to look as if you’re in that role?” His jaw clenches, and he begins to pull away. “It would diminish you.”
I press forward. “How so?”
“You’re the Oracle. You are not a courtesan.”
I don’t know enough about Frost society tohave even known they have courtesans, and I’m about to ask him more about them when his focus flickers away from me.
For a moment, I’m certain he glances toward Lilis, and for the life of me, it looks like he… But I’m certain I must be imagining the pinch of skin between his eyebrows that speaks of concern.
Either way, I capitulate. “You’re right. I’m not a courtesan, whatever role they play in Frost society. But I’m also certain I’ll only be diminished if you treat me so.”
His gaze rakes across me, but he’s once again silent.
This time, darkly so.
“Stellen?”
His voice is grating. “My mother was diminished. And she was the queen.”
I catch my breath at his rasp. A sharp sensation slides across my chest, a tendril of music in his voice wrapping around my heart. A piece of wire is threatening to cut me.
It must be cutting him more.
He warned me that in this kingdom, even a queen can be made to suffer.
Memories have the power to destroy us.
My shoulders relax. I raise my mittened hand again, and this time, I allow it to connect with his chest, pressing across the largest rip in his tunic.
“Then you know,” I whisper, “how to ensure the same doesn’t happen to me.”
He presses his hand over mine, his brow furiously furrowed. “You would have to sleep in my bed. That means putting you in the path of?—”
“Assassins, yes. You mentioned. A good night’s sleep eludes you.”
It was one of the things he said he wanted from me. Whenhe told me he wanted his enemies dead, he also said he wanted to sleep through the night without listening for assassins.
“I’m accustomed to sleeping badly,” I say. “Also, it seems my Oracle power is alive and well here in Frost. It’s better if you’re closer to me at night. It will be easier for me to save you that way.”
I give him a bright smile.
He blinks at me.
