“We’ll tell him,” I declared, my thumbs absently stroking his cheeks. “Tonight. Together,” I continued and he placed a kiss on my forehead and stood to his full height.
“Together,” Dommik repeated.
It was one hour to sunset when the last note of the evening bells vibrated throughout the halls. The Hive would rise soon and I needed to leave Dommik’s room unseen. He’d gone to find me a suitable outfit. Something that would cover my skin, which would be riddled with traces of his touch. A garment I would wear as we confessed what we’d done to the regent of the Southern Hive.
I surveyed my skin, but inspecting my bare arms and midsection was useless to my mortal eyes. Even if I couldn’t see it, knowing was enough to make my stomach twist. My body was a canvas of treachery. When we did tell Rhazien, it wouldn’t take more than a passing glance to see the evidence of our betrayal.
I was sitting on the bed, my feet bouncing impatiently as I ran through each plausible scenario from least to most likely. My optimism was limited from the start that we would live through our confession, but the more I considered the different outcomes, the more I doubted our plan.
But Dommik was right. This was the honest and moral thing to do. Be upfront, decent, respectful. If that was even possible given all of the ways Dommik had handled me the night before.
For a moment I wondered how difficult it might be to procure more of that trace-eliminating tonic. But then again, I wanted to be Dommik’s. Maybe wearing his traces would make me a disgrace—a fallen prospectivequeen—but I’d lived with slanderous titles in the past. I could manage it, if it meant I would be his. That is, if we lived beyond this confession…
A gentle knock rapped at the door.
I stood, securing the sheet around myself again. It seemed odd that Dommik would knock but I chalked it up to a courtesy warning that he was about to enter.
When the door didn’t open, I approached it with a smile and a joke on my lips, both of which fell instantly when I saw the tall, lean, loyal vampiric steward on the other side of the door.
Void of all emotion, Gorvin simply said, “Hello, Lady Reyva.”
Chapter 36
Traces
Gorvin covered me in a cloak and delivered me directly to Rhazien’s chambers. His rooms were so vast and so grand that the entire hallway was made up of doors leading to his various sitting and entertaining areas. This part of the Hive was quiet. Before, I enjoyed the distance from the hum of activity. But now, the absence of sound shackled my steps.
Gorvin didn’t offer me a glance as he held the door open to the regent’s chamber. I thanked him anyway as he stood tall and stoic and something cracked within me. This was the first of many upcoming confrontations and reactions.
In the steward’s eyes, I had been unfaithful to Rhazien. Ungrateful for my position, protection, and most importantly, I had been a traitor to Rhazien’s heart. A villainous miscreant.
Every shred of sense told me that Gorvin’s response—which wasn’t a response at all really, more of a signature emotionless silent treatment—would be one of the kinder reactions to this news.
“I was worried you’d snuck out to that tavern again.” A voice lumbered from behind a large desk. Rhazien looked up from whatever he was writing, his anger suffocating the air in the room.
Dommik hadn’t left a single part of me unclaimed and an inferno of shame and embarrassment blazed through me. Rhazien’s eyes fixated onmy mouth. I didn’t completely understand why, but I needed to fight back tears.
I clasped my hands at my middle and licked my lips, ready for his impending interrogation.
“How long has this affair been going on?” He flicked the feather quill at me with the same disdain as the question.
“It wasn’t an affair,” I corrected in a careful whisper.
“Wasn’t? Or isn’t?”
The question trapped me. He wanted to know if I thought it was in the past, or if this was something that would continue. I shifted my weight as I thought it over. But Rhazien wasn’t in a patient mood.
“You’re not sure?” His chair scraped against the stone floor as he pushed himself away from the desk. His mouth twisted into a ferocious snarl. “Fine. I’ll just go ask him.”
Damning desperation ripped through me as my voice cracked, “What will you do to him?”
Rhazien looked down at me in disgust as he passed me. “I haven’t decided.”
I fell to my knees as a lock on his chamber door clicked into place from the outside.
The quiet hour that followed felt like an eternity. I hadn’t moved an inch and my bones ached where they met the stone.
He won't kill him. He won't kill him. He won't kill him.
