Page 91 of Black Sea

I held his gaze harshly until he accepted that and surrendered with an angry sigh. Then, I tucked his hair behind his ear and touched the tip, so similar to mine. My eyes started to burn, and the combination of emotion and pain tightened my throat like a noose.

“Where did you learn Elvish?” I whispered in my language.

He twisted his wrist to break free from my grip and then intertwined his fingers with mine with a movement that was both so natural and deeply significant, causing me to groan in anguish.

“My mother taught me,” he replied in his tongue.

Slowly, I trailed my nails down his jawline. “Do you speak it?”

Amlach squeezed my fingers tighter and put his other hand on my hip, pulling me a bit closer. “Not anymore. But I can still understand it well.”

I placed my hand on his chest. My fingers fisted in his robe. I couldn’t let him touch me like that, as if nothing had happened.

He had deceived me.

For days, and days, and days.

We had shared food, sweat, blood, racing breaths, wounds. We had relied on each other to stay alive. We had slept together, night after night.

And he had continued to keep his true identity from me.

His true nature.

I pushed him away with a pained whimper. “Are you as strong as we are?” I asked, looking downward.

“Just a tad stronger than a human,” he replied stiffly.

I started to step back slowly, my heart in a vice. “Are you as fast as us?”

“No.” Amlach moved forward to prevent me from putting space between us. “I just have great reflexes.”

I winced, unable to meet his gaze. “Can you see as far as we do?”

“No,” he said, getting annoyed. “But I have better vision than a human.”

My back hit the bars. “Can you—”

“ Enough,” he snarled, slamming his hands against the bars on the sides of my head with such force that I felt them tremble behind my shoulder blades. His eyes, filled with anger and torment, locked onto mine. “Enough, Nauriel.”

My face crumpled from the tears I was suppressing, and I turned my head to the side to hide my weakness from Amlach.

He pressed his forehead against my temple, his hot breath puffing against my cheek. “I’m not an elf.”

The cruelty in those words coaxed a wail from me, and I got the impression of hearing the iron of the bars squeak under his grip.

“I’m sorry,” he murmured, kissing my cheekbone. “And I’m sorry I lied to you.”

“You didn’t trust me,” I said, switching to the common tongue. I looked up at him, feeling so embittered as tears escaped my control. “You never truly trusted me.”

Instead, I stupidly had.

Furious with both of us, I pushed Amlach away and started toward the cell door.

“Nauriel, wait,” he exclaimed, seizing my arm.

That’s when I felt it.

A shock so powerful it awakened my spirit. So powerful it radiated my heart with a white light. So powerful it called my soul.