Another tremor ripples through his body, and he drags me to an armchair, tugging me into his lap. My legs dangle over the side. He kisses me again, our teeth knocking together. His lips move over mine as if he’s been starved for me, his tongue coaxing my lips open. A loud moan escapes me as we part for air. I’m panting as he grips my jaw, trailing hot kisses down the column of my throat.
“Zev?” I breathe, chest heaving, all the anger kissed out of me. “Not that I mind, but I’m … confused.”
“Do. You. Want. Me. To. Stop?” he asks between kisses that set my pulse ablaze.
“No,” I whimper as his teeth scrape against my collarbone.
Another deep kiss, slow and languid, his tongue stroking mine.
“Then let me savor this, baby.”
Zev kisses me until I can’t think, can’t breathe, can’t function. I don’t exist except where he touches me. My lips tingle beneath the faint scratch of his stubble, my hair a knotted mess from his roving hands.
He finally pulls back, tucking me close to his chest. His hands are gentle, yet even still, barely restrained desire thrums beneath his skin.
For the first time since that wretched,wretchednight in the tunnels, his face is open. Unguarded. Warmth and tenderness swirl in his gaze. The way he used to look at me before—
My chin quivers. His eyes track the movement, and he brushes a soft kiss to my cheek. “My sweet Mayah,” he breathes. “I’ve been keeping a secret of my own.”
Chapter Eighty-Two
“I’matruthwielder.”
I blink. “What?”
He smiles at me, arealsmile, not a feral baring of his teeth or a vicious curve of his lips, but an actual smile laced with affection—the one he used to save just for me.
My heart stutters.
“It’s my secondary ability. Lev and my mother were the only ones who knew. Tairna made sure I didn’t tell anyone.” His smile fades. “I was maybe eight. She had a bruise on her cheek. I asked what happened, and she said she had fallen. The back of my neck prickled so hard, I began scratching it. She asked what was wrong—when I told her, her face went pale.”
Heart- and truthwielders are put to death as soon as they’re discovered.
Even children?
Especially children.
“All those weeks alone with you, Mayah … and you never lied.” His voice is soft, aching. “Not once. Most people lie within minutes of opening their mouths—women, soldiers, advisers.”He lets out a quiet, bitter chuckle, his fingers skimming the line of my jaw.
“But not you. Somehow, you managed not to lie once. My beautiful, clever,magnificentMayah. And Skies above, I fell in love with you—while I was dragging you to marry my brother.”
His voice breaks, and my heart twists.
“But the Skies favored me for some reason I’ll never understand.Imarried you. And I knew you didn’t love me. Not yet. But I hoped one day you would. That I’d wake one morning and find you gazing at me with affection in your eyes. With longing. Becauseyouwanted to, not out of a misplaced sense of duty or a need for survival. I hoped you’d fall in love withme.”
A beat of silence.
“And I thought maybe you had.” His thumb brushes the corner of my mouth. “You wanted me. You let me hold you like you craved me, too. You reached for me in the dark, when you were half-asleep because you needed me close.
“But then I returned from the border and found you withhim…” The memory splinters his gravelly voice. “My world shattered, Mayah.”
He swallows hard, like he’s forcing jagged glass down his throat.
“I’d been wrong. So horribly, stupidly,hopelesslywrong. When you fell to your knees beside his body—Skies, the way you looked at him. The grief in your eyes. The rage. It gutted me.” He pauses, his breath shallow, eyes glistening. “In that moment, I was ready to annul our marriage and send you back home. You didn’t love me. And I—” His voice thins, fingers tight around my chin. “I had just murdered the man you did. That felt like punishment enough.”
His hand drops from my face.
“But then you turned on me. Attacked me withwater.” He laughs, low and bitter. “And just like that, my world shattered again. Twice in the span of minutes.”
