Callista suddenly whispered out of the shadows, throwing my heartbeat into super-speed. I stumbled back. “You scared me half to death.”
“Apologies,” she said. “I forget that you’re mortal, and your senses are not as heightened as ours.”
“Right.” I glanced away, once again staring at the doorway where Yuto had vanished. “Well, I’d like to say I wasn’t distracted, but…” I waved at the empty air.
“I’m sorry, my dear. Yuto has a wounded soul. He has difficulty discussing the past, least of all with a stranger,” Callista said, quietly patting my hand. “You shouldn’t have asked anything of him.”
“So, I’m supposed to volunteer information about my past but not ask him a damn thing about himself?” I snapped. This was ridiculous. I’d done nothing wrong. How was I supposed to know he was so testy about his past?
“He’ll come around in time.”
“Come around to what? To me?He’sthe one who broughtmehere. Shouldn’t it be the other way around?”
With a sigh, I threw up my hands. What was I even doing? I didn’t need to know Yuto. His past didn’t matter to me, and neither did his future. If he wanted to storm around like a wounded animal, then so be it. Meanwhile, I would plot my hasty escape. I wasn’t his ticket out of here, and I wasn’t his punching bag either.
Soon, I’d be nothing more than one of his ghosts.
9
Yuto
“My lord, I think you may have been hasty with your anger at the girl,” Callista said quietly from the open doorway of my chambers. I sat with my feet propped up on the settee’s smooth velvet. A fire blazed in the hearth, even though it wasn’t needed. Winter never came in Inishfall. It didn’t come in Pira either. Everything was all fire and smoke and blazing sunshine.
“She was prodding into my past. You know how I feel about that, Callista.” Pain still roiled through me from Aradia’s questions. She had gotten too close to guessing the truth about my past, and while it was no secret amongst my companions, I did not want a stranger digging into it.
The loss was over five hundred years old, and yet my heart felt as though it had only happened yesterday.
“She’s only curious, my lord.” Callista eased into the room and shut the heavy wooden door behind her. “She’s been dropped into a strange new land with a dragonlord. I’d be curious, too.”
I arched my brows. “But would you continually ask probing questions, unafraid of the consequences?”
“Me?” She chuckled. “Likely not. But Aradia has a far different soul than me. I’d hide in that room of hers and never dare to slide a toe into the corridor.”
I sighed, running a hand through my hair. “You’re right about that. She isn’t afraid of me.”
“No, my lord. It doesn’t seem that she is.”
“That’s unusual.”
“Because she’s mortal?” Callista asked.
I frowned up at her. “Even most immortals are afraid of me.”
Most. Not all. If the fear was unanimous, I never would have ended up here in the first place. My enemy would have never made such a brutal move against my family. She would have known her life was forfeit. And it would have been, if not for the betrayal that stole everything.
“Perhaps she would have been more afraid if she’d met you under previous circumstances.” Callista meant during my rule over Pira, of course.
“No, I don’t believe she would have,” I mused, and then shook my head. Aradia was too brave for her own good. One day it would get her killed but not on my watch. “No matter. We have far greater things to worry about at the moment than Aradia Galatas. Aleka has returned from her scouting mission. It seems that Panos will make another move on us within the fortnight. We’ll need to be prepared for his attack. I will not allow him to kill another of you, even if I have to burn the flesh from his bones. The scent of his cooking heart will be a warning to the rest of our foes.”
Callista winced. “As always, you certainly have a way with words, my lord.”
I arched a brow. “You would have me show him mercy?”
“Never, my lord. Not after what he did to the others. It’s just…well, you know I’ve never liked the poetry of battle. I wish we could have peace.”
Leaning back into the seat, I stared into the flickering fire. Inishfall had proven to be a far more complicated entity to fight than anything I’d faced back in Pira. Here, I had no army. Resources were hard to come by. Enemies were unpredictable. In Pira, it was always clear what my enemies wanted. Power, wealth, fame. But minds twisted by madness were so much harder to read.
“My lord, you look worried,” Callista said, breaking through my reverie.
