And he was searching for something in the midst of all Molt’s books.
“Where would she have hidden it?” he grumbled. “Think, Lorcan, think!”
All the blood drained from her face. At once, she understood what he was doing here. He wanted the book, the one he kept pleading with her to forget.
“Molt’s book is unimportant,”he’d said to her.“You need to move on from it. There aren’t any conspiracies, Reyna. It’s just a book. Forget about it. There’s nothing in it.”
He’d said all those things and more, and here he was, ripping apart Molt’s study trying to find it. Did he really think she’d hide it somewhere so obvious?
It isn’t as though he’s in his right mind, she thought grimly. Something had been off. She’d felt it deep in her soul. Ever since the coronation, he’d been different.
Did that have something to do with it? Had he changed because of the coronation? Had some sort of dark magic been released that day?
It wasn’t impossible. And clearly, there was something about it in Molt’s book.
Taking a deep breath, Reyna took one last furtive glance around the corner. Lorcan still raged through the study, ripping shelves off the wall and throwing books onto the floor. The room no longer looked like a study. It looked like the remnants of a war.
Reyna’s heart ached. She had no idea what had happened to him, but she had to fix this. Ulaid Molt had left behind a legacy, and this was it. She should have seen it coming.
* * *
“Would you like some wine?” Lorcan lifted the lid from a crystal decanter and poured the deep crimson liquid into one of the two chalices set out before him. “This has been imported from the Empire of Fomor.”
“I’d rather have this discussion sober,” Reyna replied from where she leaned up against the curving wall. After Lorcan’s hasty search through Molt’s study, she’d followed him up to their quarters at the top of the tower. Their great luxurious bed squatted in the center of the room, built into the tree that grew through the entirety of the tower itself. Moss spread across the floor, dotted with new red and golden flowers in full bloom.
It was beautiful, but Reyna hated it. She yearned to sink her toes into snow, and to breathe in the fresh, biting morning frost. Instead, a cloying heat followed her wherever she went, along with dread.
Frowning, Lorcan turned to her with raised eyebrows, his chalice halfway to his lips. “What discussion?”
“Something is wrong,” she said tightly. “It’s been wrong ever since we got here. Because of that book.”
Lorcan let out a heavy sigh and tipped the crimson liquid into his open mouth. “Not this again. It’s just a book, Reyna. A book and some old parchment. None of it means anything. The wood king is dead. The Ruin is gone. We won. Your father will be here any day now, along with Thane. We’ll all sign the treaty and unite our courts once and for all.”
So, then why were you trying to find it?
“All of that is true,” she said, pushing away from the wall. “But it’s also true that something has changed.You’vechanged. You’re not acting like yourself toward anyone but especially not toward me. We haven’t made love since the first night we got here.”
It had only been a week, but there was something so strange in it all. They’d spent so long apart that she’d wanted nothing more than to lose days wrapped up in his arms. And Lorcan had no interest in intimacy at all. They’d shared a bed each night, but not once had he reached out to touch her skin.
Lorcan turned away, and a knife stabbed her heart. The warrior she had fallen in love with would never turn his back on her like this. “Have you ever considered that it isn’t me, Reyna? That maybe it’s you instead? You’re so focused on finding something to fight against that you can’t see who’s standing right in front of you?”
Reyna’s hands fisted, and she fought the tears that threatened to fill her eyes. “I see who’s standing right in front of me, and I don’t recognize him at all.”
He whirled on her then, his eyes flashing with an anger that he’d never directed at her before. “Maybe you’re right. Maybe I have changed, because theworldhas changed. I’ve had to adapt. I’ve had to step up and lead.” He took a step toward her, growling. “And all you’ve done is stay the same, stuck in your little world. So, yes, you’re right. There is a problem here, Reyna, but it’s not me. It’syou.”
Her heart jolted in her chest, flickers of pain building to a roar of fire. Shaking her head, she turned away from him so that he wouldn’t see the fresh tears springing into her eyes. Something was wrong. She’d known it before, but she was even more certain now.
Lorcan Rothach would never speak to her this way.
He stepped up behind her, and the pulsing hum of his shadow magic pounded against her back. Potent, vicious, cruel. His hand cupped the back of her neck, and his fingers brushed against the delicate skin around her throat. Her heart thundered, though it was not from desire for once. Lorcan had touched her a hundred times by now, but it had never once felt like this.
Wrong.
“Reyna,” he murmured, stepping closer so that his lips brushed against the tips of her curved ears. “Where did you hide Molt’s book?”
She spun out of his embrace, whirling on him. Everything within her clenched tight from a pain almost too great for her to bear. She’d given her heart and soul to this male…no, that wasn’t right.Thiswas not who she’d given her heart to. Lorcan was slowly becoming something else.
“Why do you want the book so badly?” she asked in a voice as icy as her heart. “I thought you told me to stop worrying about it. You told me to forget about it and move on.”
