“Maybe if you had allowed me to help you in the first place, we wouldn’t be here,” she said, folding her arms.
“Do you think this is a game?” he growled, clenching the towel in his fist. “Do you think your little stunt makes you a professional? You’re not trained for this—you’re not an assassin—you’re supposed to stay alive!”
Each word twisted like a serrated dagger in her chest.
“Well, maybe if you trusted me,” she argued, straightening. She despised how her voice trembled beneath her anger. “I wouldn’t have to sneak around.”
“I can’t keep protecting you if you’re going to keep acting like a petulant child!”
“Maybe you shouldn’t!” she shot back. “I never asked you to!”
The silence that followed was heavy. Raw.
“It is my duty to keep you safe,” he said at last, his voice lower now, tempered like steel. “Whether you like it or not.”
“Just duty?” she asked. “Is that all it is?”
Hope slipped into the question before she could stop it. Hope that there could be somesemblance ofsomething—
“What more could it be?”
Her breath stilled. The words struck hard and true, like a fist to the gut. The hurt settled low and sickening.
She didn’t know why she had expected anything different. Or why these nauseating emotions would haunt her at all? Yet, something in the back of her mind whispered what she had known to be true for weeks.
She loved him.
But he would never love her in return.
His expression shifted—something softer, regretful, flickered across his face. He opened his mouth to speak, but she was quicker.
“Please leave,” she whispered.
For a moment, his hands clenched and unclenched in silence. A part of her wished he would stay and take back what he said—that he would confess the same secret things brewing in her heart.
But he stood, turned, and walked away.
Chapter twenty-one
The door closed behind Cedric with a soft click.
The familiar darkness of the secret passage enveloped him as he stared at the stony barrier that stood between him and the woman he vowed to protect.
Maybe you shouldn’t. I never asked you to!
Her words clung to the chaotic storm in his mind. Pressing a hand to his brow, he exhaled a sharp sigh. Weeks ago, under the shade of trees, she had said she needed him, but now…
Irritation buzzed beneath his skin.
But if he searched deeper, it wasn’t anger that flooded him—it was fear.
The image of her limp body in his arms, the blood trickling from her head, had undone him. As he hurried to her side, her fluttering blue eyes met his, and his heart stopped, leaving him unable to breathe.
How many times would he arrive almost too late? What if there was no next time? How could he keep failing her?
And how could she be so reckless?
His boots moved on their own accord. Marching down the halls, he unlatched the concealed door leading into the barracks. Several of his men were playing cards over barrels, chatting and laughing among themselves. Some leaned against their bunk beds, smoking or polishing their boots. When they saw him, they shot to their feet and saluted as he passed.
