Page 39 of Ruling the Green

Now, did I strictly need to sit behind Serin, her body propped up to mine, to give her the drink? No, no I did not. And I went ahead and didn’t consider why I felt the need to do it at all.

The second the water poured into her mouth, all thoughts I’d been trying not to ponder flew out of my head anyway. Because Serin came alive. I swear I could practically feel the wave of vitality coursing through her.

“I’m good,” Nira said, smirking as she set down the jug on the dresser. “Well, mission complete. I’m going to go retire to my room. If you need anything… call Vishen.”

Serin let out a small laugh as the other woman left the room.

“It seems like your voice is coming back,” I said, pulling away from her, reminding myself that she was practically a prisoner in the castle and this marriage, that I needed to stop getting close to her.

She had a wide-eyed look for a second before she tamped it down, making the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end.

“Are you able to speak?” I asked, keeping my tone calm. Even if I felt my father’s anger—a part of me, no matter how hard I tried to fight it—rearing up. I saw the guilt slice across her gorgeous face, making me take a deep breath. “Why would you lie about that?”

Her face went tense. “Just today,” she rasped, her voice rusty.

“All day?”

“Since… the flask water.”

A muscle ticked in my jaw. “So you were able to speak the whole time we were touring the castle and hanging out on the cliff?”

“Yes.” Her voice was small.

“Why?”

She swallowed hard.

“Serin.” I didn’t mean to snarl her name. It didn’t even sound all that menacing to my own ears. But Serin jerked and slid up the bed, curling her knees to her chest, her lower lip trembling.

Fuck.

Right.

She was a Daughter of the Lake. Before Grimwood, her exposure to anything other than lake creatures had likely been limited. Harsh emotions had to be as foreign to her as the brutality of kidnapping.

I took a deep breath, then another, waiting until my jaw slackened to speak again, hoping my voice would soften around the edges. “Why didn’t you want to speak to me?”

“I don’t know you.”

“I understand that. But I have done nothing but try to take care of you. Why would that suddenly change just because you could speak?”

“I don’t know. Everything is new to me here,” she admitted, anxiously smoothing the blanket at her side. “I don’t know how much I can trust you.”

“I thought I made it clear that we are, for the time being, in this together. My fate is tied with yours.”

“Doesn’t that mean you could use me in whatever way you wish to get your desired outcome?”

“Given what you’ve heard about my asshole father since you’ve been here, I get your concern. But I’m not him.”

“But you follow his orders. Like marrying me.”

“He is the king. And until that crown is on my head, I need to at least appear to be playing into his hand.”

“But you’re not?”

“I am doing everything in my power to keep this court together while he devolves into madness. And to keep it out of the greedy hands of his so-called friends.”

“Like Grimwood.”