“Poor word choice, buddy,” Alexei mumbled.
“You know what I mean.”
I huffed. “Do I? Or is the image of meflounderingstill deeply ingrainedin your head?”
The ugly, depressive guilt he carried around spiked, stabbing into my chest. I gritted my teeth, hating that now I felt bad for him.
“Michael is still out there, hunting for me. The male we were going to kill together when I thought you were on my side, remember?” I eyed him, enjoying his silence. But his guilt became heavier. “He told the council about me. And I’m sure they want my darkness purged from their world. So to everyone else, I’m not a princess. I’m a warrior indebted to the king, and I don’t have powers beyond angelic speed.”
He only nodded, accepting the information with no additional questions or comments. And for some reason, that bothered me.
How did I process all these conflicting emotions? When would everything stop being so damned hard?
“MJ, was that my praesidium earlier?”
“Yes. It’s a protective state you go into when your cordistella is in danger.”
Protective might be an understatement.
“So that’s why she looked like she was about to murder me,” Alexei said.
I shrugged. “Only a little.”
Alexei smirked. “Go right ahead, beautiful. Let’s see what you’ve got.”
Alexei was a balm to the weight resting on my chest and a wonderful distraction. Maybe training with him would actually help me.
“Tomorrow. At the Shard Field.” I winked.
“It’s a date. MJ could even shoot arrows at you again.”
“Or Aspen,” MJ purred. “I’d enjoy seeing what makes him run.”
Ronen groaned, waking up. Instinctively, I touched his hand, our tingling skin easing something inside me.
“That’s our signal,” MJ commented.
“Our signal for what?”
“To leave, Lex.”
“What? No, I want to know what happened, and we need to tell him about Cecilee.”
She grabbed his arm. “You’re such a nosy little imp. They need a moment. We’ll tell him after.”
Did we? Did I really want to be alone in a room with Ronen after kicking him out this morning and potentially causing his drunkenness?
Aspen left first, and the other two followed.
“Wait, I?—”
MJ slammed the door, and I was left in a too-quiet room with my heart rate spiking. A cold sweat gathered on my palm, making Ronen’s skin feel hot. But I was too scared to remove my hand. In fact, I was too scared to remove my gaze from the door and lay eyes on him.
Heavenly Hell, this was starting to feel a lot like the last time we were both in here alone together.
I could feel his stare digging into the side of my face. A flush bled through my cheeks. Our skin still touched, but I was frozen and unmoored. He unsteadied me, made me sweat, made my thoughts scatter. Except… when I met those golden eyes. There, I found ground to anchor to. There, tension eased from my muscles in the presence of a home I’d barely begun to know. There the world fell away, my fears and doubts, and everything made sense.
He was the eerie silence that stroked goosebumps across my nape and a song that matched every note of my Infernus, every hum of Glory, and eased the staccato beat inside my chest.
