He pushes on my hip again and spins me out so fast that everything around me blurs. But he has me. His grip doesn’t waver, and he’s already pulling me back into him. I face him now as he places a hand on my lower back. I have no choice but to put my awkward, dangling hand on his broad, warm back.
He smirks down at me.
“So you can dance… Or was that just a fancy trick? None of you danced at the ball when you first arrived.” That night feels like a lifetime ago now.
“We had just arrived. To our enemy’s castle.” His eyes focus on mine with heavy lids. “We do a lot of dancing in Torrynth. It’s an unfortunate skill I was forced to learn.”
“You poor thing.”
“I know.” His smile pulls wider. “This isn’t so bad though.”
Warmth fills my belly at his closeness and his smooth words. Damn him.
I look away, my smile falling.
“What’s wrong?” he asks as he guides me slowly.
“We’re not going to be able to keep this up. You guys are due to leave soon, and who knows what state of things we’re going back to. You might be kicked out anyway.”
“I know,” he murmurs.
“We’ll have to figure out a way to communicate. Use a messenger we trust or something. I don’t know…”
He stares at me for a beat, his gaze boring into mine. “Come with us.”
“I—what?”
“You heard me.”
“I can’t just… come with you. To Torrynth?”
“Yes.” He’s completely serious. “And Meela too. And Rhydra and Gaethri.”
“I can’t…” For so many reasons. But what else can I say? That it’s becoming impossible to be around him? That every time he’s in the same room as me I can barely focus? And that it hurts deep in my chest knowing he doesn’t feel the same? I can’t go to his homeland and continue to torture myself. And I know that’s selfish. Our mission should be the top priority.
But I don’t know if going there would be more beneficial for our mission anyway. It’s not like any of the relics are hidden in the heart of Torrynth. If we had suspicions that any of them were, then we’d be having a completely different discussion.
“Why not?”
“For starters… our library.”
“Yeah. We can visit other regions, check out some of their books. Maybe they have something more useful. Less censored. Or… we can simply talk to people. That seems to be helping us more than any of the books ever did.”
I shrug a single shoulder. He pushes me away and everything around me spins, which seems to match the inside of my head at the moment.
“What else?”
“The diadem is probably in the castle somewhere.”
“You’ve never seen it your whole life. Maybe it’s not. Or, maybe, we find someone who does know.”
“That’s a gamble.”
“What else?”
“Meela, Gaethri, Rhydra…”
“Yes?”
