Fire flashed through Cade’s darkening expression. “Don’t you dare move it back.”
Bridget slowly dropped her hands. Lowering her gaze, she picked a tile to stare at her and hoped the world would stop tilting around her. If she was going to push him away, she needed to move the ring back to her right hand or keep it in a drawer orsomething. But Cade’s statement had melted her into an unmoving mess.
“Why?” he asked.
Bridget snapped her gaze back to Cade’s. The calm question was so opposite of the ire still brewing in his golden eyes, it almost left her out at a loss for words again. “Why what?”
“Why dowe have to?” Cade asked. “What happened in the past that’s making you try to push me away?”
“I can’t tell you. If you trust me at all—”
“But you can tell Stellan.”
Bridget’s mouth fell open. Panic licked up her spine. His haggard appearance suddenly made sense. “You followed me?”
“Of course, I did. Something is obviously wrong. You could barely look me in the eye last night,” Cade argued. “And while my father has seemed to accept we’re together, that still doesn’t mean it’s safe to wander around here in the dead of night all by yourself.”
“You don’t understand…” Bridget began, thinking only of her conversation with Stellan about the bond. He couldn’t know. But then she saw what he was trying to hide.Jealousy. “It’s not what you think.”
She slammed her mouth shut. For someone trying to break up with him, she was letting every good excuse roll right out the window.
Confusion marred Cade’s features before his mouth curled in irritation. “Fuck, Bridget, give me a little more credit,” he growled. Letting out a tired sigh, he grabbed the sides of her face. His thumb ran over her cheekbone. “I know that you love me… which is why you need to help me understand why you can trust him, but not me.”
Bridget wanted to scream that she did trust him. More than anyone. But the panic paralyzing her limbs choked her. Cade couldn’t know about the bond. Not yet. Even if the urge to just tell him was growing by the second.
Especially when there was a nervous lilt to his voice when he asked, “What did you show Stellan?”
“Were you listening the whole time?” Bridget whispered—half terrified of the answer, half hoping he just alreadyknew.
“I don’t have supersonic hearing.” Frustration returned to Cade’s gaze. Again, he asked, “What did you show him?”
Relief soared through her limbs. At least they still had a chance to get his abilities back. At least they—
An all too familiar cloak floated through Bridget’s line of vision behind him. With a sour look on her face as she glanced at the giant portraits of Cade’s ancestors, Alexia pulled up her hood and eyed the open archway to the southern garden.
“Alexia,” Bridget mumbled, brain sputtering with all the pieces it was trying to put together.
Cade stared at her like she had two heads. “What?”
“What time is it?” Bridget asked. Alexia shouldn’t be alone. Since they’d arrived in Astraeus, Nylah had made it her life’s mission to ensure that didn’t happen.Since she poisoned me, I’m going to pester her, she’d said.
“I don’t know. I think around eleven…” Cade said, wildly looking around for a clock. Once he spotted Alexia, he paled. The same conclusion she’d spun to obvious on his face.
How was it already that late? Bridget pushed past him and darted toward Alexia. She grabbed the other girl’s arm and ripped her backwards before she made it to the courtyard.
Alexia sneered. “Get your hands off me.”
“How did you get past Nylah?” Bridget demanded.
“What in the hell are you talking about?” Alexia’s now wary gaze darted between her and Cade, who’d followed her maniacal sprint.
“She’s been guarding you like it’s her damn job,” Bridget muttered through gritted teeth. “You know, kind of like what you used to do to me.”
Having the gall to look affronted, Alexia ripped her arm back to her side. “Is that why the little twerp won’t leave me alone?”
Bridget’s stomach sank to the floor. Something was wrong. Something wasverywrong. She knew it in her bones. Nylah never slept late. Without a word, she took off toward the main staircase, Cade hot on her heels.
Taking the round, carpeted staircase two steps at a time, Bridget’s lungs burned by the time she made it to the fourth floor. Sprinting past the library, she skidded to a halt in front of Nylah’s door and slammed it open.
