I thought he was a fool—a boy who had been handed everything he had ever wanted hisentirelife, refusing to accept he couldn’t have her, too.
Little did I know what I would feel the moment I saw her.
I step further into the room, my fingers brushing against woolen blankets atop the bed. The furred comforter is soft, as soft as Lunaria’s hair looked the night I met her.
Memories of that night flood into my mind—when I was a spy for Penyth, and she was Amira Ramsey.
Agony, bright and brilliant, exploded through my chest when I first laid eyes on her. There was something different about her that I couldn’t put my finger on, a scent that piqued my interest as her fiery eyes lit into me.
That was when Adrian’s grand gesture—his insane behavior—finally made sense. This woman wasn’t justdifferent. She was captivating. Enthralling.Maddening.
And she’s back in her chambers once again.
In the room where I would meet her before sneaking into the gardens to train.
The room outside of which I paced countless times, trying to find an excuse to be near her, only to talk myself out of it and leave before I even knocked.
The room she’s now sharing with Adrian.
My teeth grind against one another, and I press my palm against the iced-over window. I trust Lunaria—know that she doesn’t see Adrian in that way. And I trust thatAdrianknows that if he touches her, I would simply remove that hand from his body.
Wind howls against the window, snapping my attention to the moonlit night sky.
I sigh and drop my hand.
Not even one night in this cesspool, and I already feel like I’m on the brink of losing my temper. Before Lu, that wasn’t something that happened often. I used to pride myself on being able to weather any storm, stay collected under any pressure—but now? I snort.
Lunaria turned my world upside down since our first meeting and has been challenging me ever since.
I attempt to ease my tumbling thoughts by taking a bath as Lu suggested—though that only leads to imaginingherin there with me, covered in suds and dripping wet. It does little to quell my racing heart.
With a painful rush of heat stirring my cock, I shake my head and climb out of the tub. I towel off, walking past the full-length gold-plated mirror resting near the opening of the chambers. The smooth, reflective surface is hazy—as if it sat here uncleaned and untouched for a decade.
I have every intention to go straight to bed, but something catches my attention as I pass by the mirror. My head rears back. I glance into it. At my reflection.
The towel at my waist feels too tight—too itchy and rough and prickly against my skin.
Rough scars—new and old—mar my flesh, but what causes my breath to stall in my chest is the ink marking my body.
My nostrils flare, the reflection in the mirror doing the same. Suddenly, every pleasant memory of Lu I’ve clung to in the last few moments becomes tainted by my time in the Vale.
I can’t tear my eyes away from the snake’s head positioned just beneath my jawline, its mouth agape, forked tongue tasting the fear coating my throat. I swallow hard.
A hiss echoes in the bath chamber, and I whirl around, heart racing and palms slick with sweat. The hiss grows louder—overwhelming my senses as I spin back to the mirror.
The corners of my mouth tug down while I try to shake away the noise filling my mind. It must be memories coming back to haunt me. Of course there isn’t really a snake in here with?—
All at once, the hissing stops.
Silence falls over the room like a thick, suffocating blanket.
My frown deepens as movement catches my attention in the mirror, just above my shoulder.
I step closer, my nose inches away from my own reflection.
In a flash, the tattoo marked into my skin begins tomove. The snake slithers up my side, its tail flicking along my abdomen as it settles over my shoulders and wraps around my neck like a vise.
I start to jerk away, but my feet don’t listen. They stay rootedin place, keeping my face inches away from the mirror and the image of the tattoo slinking around my skin.
