Page 293 of Blade of the Nightking

His thumb drifted absently over the back of his hand, over and over, as though he didn't realize he was doing it. When he finally spoke, it was with the careful deliberation of a man weighing every word before allowing it to leave his lips.

"There are a great many things I regret, Eidra, as of late.” He exhaled, and shook his head slowly. “I regret not finding Dannis when I had the chance. I regret tricking you to escape the Veil. I regret not freeing you from Solmire in time."

The muscles in his jaw flexed once, hard enough to make the tendon beneath his ear jump.

I stared at him, my chest tightening as the warded cell rose unbidden in my mind. The iron shackles. Calantha’s ember eye. The consuming agony that had shrunk my world to a single, cruel pinprick. I’d suspected he knew what had happened to me, but he’d never confirmed it.

His attention caught on my hands. For one suspended moment, I thought he might reach for one. Instead, his eyes lifted to mine. “I regret that I didn't reach you sooner. Before the dragonfire.”

I huffed. "You tried to kill me after."

"No," he said. "I didn't."

His silence stretched just a heartbeat too long.

I searched his face, and the answer settled over me with startling clarity.

"You let me siphon from you?"

"Veylan was furious. The slackened side of his face twitched for a week straight."

A snort escaped me, quickly smothered behind my hand. A faint smile tugged at the corner of his mouth before fading, leaving something quieter and heavier in its place.

"I regret being cruel to you in Noctharis."

The memory snuffed out my amusement. My bonded mate was his enemy. After everything Aedric had done, perhaps cruelty was all Rìan had known how to give me. The weight of Aedric’s sins sat heavily between us. I knew they weren’t mine to carry, yet I couldn’t seem to put them down.

He lowered his eyes. "I regret mocking you for not being able to read."

"I can read now, can't I? Thanks to Levinica." I offered him a small smile. He didn't return it.

"Still," he said at last. "I want you to know it's something I..." He hesitated, the words seeming to catch in his throat. "Something I regretted immediately."

He rose to his feet, and bitterness bloomed inside me before I could stop it. He was leaving.

He paused in front of me, his body eclipsing the firelight as he looked down at me.

"But there's one thing above all else that I regret, Eidra. One thing I can't stop thinking about. It plays over and over again in my mind."

I braced myself. Was it someone he'd killed? Someone he'd tortured? Or was it us—everything that had happened on our journey to break the very bond that had drawn us together?

Did he regret kissing me?

“What is it?” I asked shakily.

"That night in Pelaga..." Oh gods, it was the kiss, wasn’t it?

My face burned with shame. I couldn't bear to look at him.

He extended his hand toward me, palm up.

"I did want to dance with you, Elowen." His voice came so soft it trembled at the edges. "I'd never wanted anything more."

The sound of my name on his lips, his confession... A slow flame caught in the hollow of my chest, spreading with every beat of my heart. He dragged his teeth across his lower lip, looking so genuinely uncertain that laughter nearly bubbled free. The Dark Prince of Elantis. The destroyer of minds.

Was he… nervous?

He cleared his throat. "Will you dance with me now?"