When dawn lit up the sky with the first rays of the waking sun, I burrowed beneath the covers. A new day meant the standoff against Panos ticked even closer. Training had gone well, kind of. But I was still so far from becoming the fighter I needed to be in order to protect myself if something went wrong.
Yuto draped an arm around my shoulders, pulling me closer. The scent of burnt embers swirled around me like a caress.
“You are doing quite a lot of sighing and flopping around,” he murmured into my forehead. “Have I not satisfied you, my love?”
My love.A thrill went down my spine. He was good at this, I’d give him that. But he was hundreds of years old. Of course he would know what to whisper into a girl’s ear. He’d probably whispered the same thing to hundreds of others.
“I’m worried about Callista.” I twisted the sheets in my fist and shifted sideways to face him. His eyes were half-lidded, drowsy. “We only have three more days. How will that be enough?”
“It will be enough because that is the time we have,” he said.
I frowned. “Yes, but—”
“Aradia,” he murmured.
My heart thumped at the seductive tone in his voice. “Yes?”
“I need you to trust me. It’s the only way you’ll get through this alive.”
Fear shivered through me. I pushed up onto my elbows and frowned down at him. “If that was supposed to make me feel better, you failed.”
“It wasn’t designed to make you feel better. I need you to listen tome, not the doubting voices in your head.” His voice was firm, unyielding.
Trust. He wanted me to trust him when I trusted no one else in the world but myself.
Narrowing my eyes, I threw my legs over the side of the bed and clutched the sheet around my shoulders. I hopped out of bed, stepping away from him. “I barely even know you, Yuto. Trust is earned. It isn’t just given.”
His eyebrows winged upward. “I think you know me pretty well after last night.”
Heat spread through my neck and my cheeks. Shaking my head, I took a step back. “Oh no. I’m not going to let you distract me like that. I know this plan is important to you, and I know why. But I can’t just wholeheartedly trust someone I only met last week. Someone whodidabduct me, you know.”
His gaze darkened, but he nodded. “All right, Aradia. Get dressed. I have something you need to see.”
* * *
Aleka leant me a fresh change of clothes. The deep green tunic was snug around my chest and my arms, but it was either this or yesterday’s dress. Yuto went on the hunt for food while I got changed. His absence stung, even though I’d been the one to push him away.
I knew I’d overreacted, but I’d also meant what I’d said. How could I trust him? How could I put my life into a stranger’s hands? No one had ever looked out for me but myself. It was the only way I’d survived for so long in a world full of pain and death.
If I was going to survive this, it would be because of me and me alone. Just like it had always been.
The last time I’d trusted someone, I’d ended up on the run from the crown, destined to be tortured for the rest of my pitiful life.
Yuto darkened the doorframe just as I finished the top buttons of the tunic. He tossed me an apple. I caught it in my right hand, eyebrows raised.
“Thought you might be hungry.” With a grunt, he whirled on his feet and motioned for me to follow him. Huh, so I guessed that meant he was still annoyed by our conversation. Fine with me. I could be annoyed right back.
Taking a chomp out of the apple’s juicy flesh, I marched behind Yuto as he led us down the corridor and out of the East Wing. We came to a stop in the small courtyard that spanned between the East Wing and the West Wing that lay in piles of rubble.
Yuto gestured at the stones. “This part of the castle was my home once. Not the East Wing.”
I glanced up at him. “So, they not only banished you here but they made it so you couldn’t even live in your chambers?”
He gave a silent nod.
“Whathappened, Yuto?” I asked. “How did it come to this?”
He paused for a long moment before answering. “That is a very long story, Aradia. One I’m not prepared to delve into right now. Maybe one day I will explain everything that happened, but you don’t need to know anything but this: once someone very close to me refused to accept me as the Lord Master. So, they decided to betray me and take it all away. They seized my throne and my crown and sent me away. To here. And to be sure I suffered, they added a few extra touches into the mix. Such as this castle’s destruction.”
