He reached for her hand and pressed the ring into her clammy palm. But when he pulled away, Asha’s fingers didn’t close around the band, and it fell into the sand at their feet.
For several heartbeats, both of them stared at it.
Torwin turned away.
Fire coursed through Asha’s veins. “Don’t you dare walk away.”
He kept walking.
“Take it back!”
He stopped then, almost out of reach of the firelight. He didn’t turn around when he said, very softly, “Is that acommand, Iskari?”
Her throat burned.
“Torwin...”
He turned around. But he didn’t look at her. Like a good, obedient skral, he kept his gaze on the sand at her feet. Where the ring had fallen.
“Look at me.” Asha’s voice shook.
His hands fisted. His shoulders bunched. But he didn’t look up.
Anger blazed through her. He didn’t get to do this. Not in the Rift, where rules bound no one. Not after everything they’d been through.
She moved like wind.
Right before she shoved him, Torwin looked up. His anguished gaze met Asha’s furious one.
And then, beneath the force of her palms, he staggered back. Behind them, both dragons stopped playing and looked up.
“Why are you doing this?” Asha demanded, warmed by the heat of her own fury.
A breath shuddered out of him. “I thought I was getting yououtof danger.”
Asha stopped. Her fists uncurled.
“And then I walked you right back into it.”
Asha stared at him. Over his hunched shoulders, the lake shone. The stars’ reflections were a rippling silver on black.
“And worst of all, you’refinewith it. You’re happy to be a piece in someone else’s game.” He ran frustrated hands through his hair. “It’s as if youbelievethem when they look at you like all you’re good for is being used. Like all you’re good for is destroying things.”
She frowned at him through her dripping-wet hair.
“That’s not what you are, Asha. And it’s not how you should be looked at.”
All around them was the soft sound of the lake lapping at theshore. Asha crossed her arms. His words struck something soft and exposed. Something she needed to protect at all costs.
Very quietly, she whispered, “How should I be looked at?”
Torwin lowered his gaze to her throat. A breath shuddered out of him.
“Like you’re beautiful,” he said. “Beautiful and precious and good.”
The words cracked her open, tearing that soft, exposed thing out from the safety of her chest. It angered her that he could do it so easily. It infuriated her that he could do it with just his words.
But Asha remembered the sight in the mirror.
