His mouth tightened, and I thought he might strike me as he had on the ship in the captain’s cabin. I didn’t care. I stepped back within his reach, aiming a single finger at his chest.
“Yes?” he prompted when I didn’t immediately speak.
“If you sing to him while you’re gone,” I answered, my voice a deadly murmur, “if youincanthim even once, I’ll dive into the Juile Sea and let Sidra take me.”
He examined me dispassionately, as though I were merely a summer gnat flying around his face, easily squashed.
My teeth clenched. “I vow it on my blood.”
“What’s happened?” Selena asked, her sleepy form appearing in her doorway.
With a final glare at Thaan, I shoved past her, making the return trip to Kye’s rooms.
54
My feet slowed as I climbed the final stair in the glass-wrapped tower Kye and I shared, and I stopped to listen. Soft snores greeted me through the wall, a calm, slow heartbeat coming from inside.
I opened his door and tip-toed in.
Once in his sitting room, I eyed the tray of breakfast and tea the servant left behind and wondered how best to hide it in his food. The quickest way would be to burn it and use the ash, but—
A noise came from inside Kye’s room. A mattress groaning, blankets being thrust aside. No time to think. I popped the iron kettle open, threw the grassy weed in, and snapped it shut. He came around the corner just as I set the handle on the hook over the fire.
“Who helped you?” Kye asked. He stood under the arched ceiling, still wearing his black pants, shirtless and sharp eyed. My eyes drifted across his sculpted shoulders, the Leihani tattoo and the raised veins that traveled down his arms. Warmth blossomed inside me as I stepped away from the fireplace, placing him fully in view.
He glanced at the servant's tray, his question answered. “Ah. At least you didn’t kill me in my sleep.”
“I don’t plan to kill you.”
Kye’s eyebrows jumped. “No? Well, that’s very nice to hear. Very romantic of you.” He took a moment appraising the sight of me next to the fire. “Were you cold last night? I noticed the fire in the room went out.”
I immediately latched onto the idea—the excuse it gave me for escaping. “Yes.”
“Why do you look like you poisoned a well, Leihani?”
“I don’t.” Realizing my back was straight, my muscles tense, I did my best to slouch. Kye laughed under his breath. He crossed his arms, letting his shoulder sag into the wall.
“When do you leave?” I asked, stealing a glance at the kettle. It’d been warm when I’d set it on the hook over the hearth, another minute or two and it should boil.
“Eager to be rid of me?”
Gritting my teeth, I didn’t answer. Now that I didn’t plan on killing him, and given that he'd confessed he wouldn't hurt me, I wondered if this was how our married life would play out. Thinly veiled distrust, subtle mockery, and accusations of betrayal made in jest, hiding the heavy gravity of seriousness beneath it.
I wasn’t certain if I was eager to be rid of him. I’d grown used to seeing him in the hallways. Hearing his laughter or his voice suddenly through the walls as he greeted his servants. Catching the scent of mint and rainfall. Falling asleep to the sound of his heartbeat nearby.
The tower would feel undeniably empty after today.
The whistle of the teapot saved me from answering. I retrieved it from the fire with the corner of my dress, setting it on the table, and looked up to find him watching me with an odd expression.
“They boil it and let it steepbeforethey bring it, you know.”
“I like it hot,” I said, stepping back to face him again.
“Well?” Kye pushed off the wall, slowly walking toward me. “Aren’t you thirsty?”
I leaned away from him, even as he wrapped his long, graceful fingers around my wrist, pulling me gently into an empty chair. Sparks lit under my skin where he touched.
Alarm bells went off in my head as his hand met mine, but my body craved it anyway, indifferent to the warning in his twinkling eyes.
