He clenched his jaw as if deciding whether or not to answer.His hand threaded into my hair, tilting my chin up.“You are the most infuriating woman I have ever met.Do you have any idea how angry I was when you rejected my offer of friendship and refuted my ability to throw you out of the ball after destroying my alliance with Lord Eyreling?”
“Had you never been told no before?”
He hesitated, then shook his head, attention dropping to my lips.
“But then”—he reared back to meet my eyes again—“suddenly youwantan alliance—and I knew you were up to something.”
I’d always suspected Valeris had only agreed to the alliance to spy on me, but it didn’t feel like that was a problem anymore.
“You didn’t tell me what kind of alliance you were wanting,” I said.
“What are your plans after the finale?”he asked.
The question took me by surprise.“What?”
“Will you return to Allowyn?”
I froze in his arms, the idea paralyzing me.The last five years of my life had been consumed by grief and this plan for revenge.Everything pointed to the pivotal moment when I sent an arrow into King Zaricor’s heart.Into Valeris’s father’s heart.That was all that had ever mattered, but what would I do after?
Getting caught had always been a possibility.But now, after...
I swallowed.“I—I don’t know.”
What would be my life after King Zaricor’s death?I hadn’t taken the time to consider it, and the thought consumed me now.
“I don’t want the finale ball to be the last time we see each other.”
My eyes snapped to his, heart pounding.I slipped from underneath his arm, taking several steps away, awkwardness hovering between us.“I can’t promise you anything or make any more alliances, Valeris.I have no idea where I’m going to stand politically after the Paravellian Balls.”
He followed me, searching my eyes.“But if you did know where you would stand politically, what would your answer be?”
I read the question in his own gaze, asking if I felt the same.
I swallowed.
Tell him no, the voice in my head whispered.
You’re not interested.
You feel differently.
“Maybe.”The word slipped out before I could stop it, igniting a hope that never should have sparked.
I shook my head, tears threatening to spill.“But I can’t.”
I sat on the floor, wrapping my arms around my legs.Valeris eased down across from me, watching but staying uncharacteristically quiet.
“What are you hiding from me?”
I interlaced my fingers, staring down at them and trying to find the right words.“There are things I will never be able to tell you.Things I will never be able to share, only that the consequences will always haunt me.”
Sadness overwhelmed him.“We all have horrible things in our past that haunt us.Things we can’t forget.”
His words were emotionally loaded, and I recognized the distant look in his eyes.“There’s a reason you don’t like to be touched without permission, isn’t there?”
His face hardened, lined with anger.“Uncle Wylan used to be known as Prince Alekvandor, my father’s brother.And you know of”—the words stuck in his throat—“theother?”
Quintar.The uncle who had been executed.
