I set my jaw.
“Things didn’t go to plan,” I admitted. “When I saw my mother, she was already leaving the House of the Veil. I followed her to the sewer entrance?—”
Rykr inhaled sharply.
I frowned at him but pressed on. “A guard caught us trying to go after her and demanded our names. I tried a sleeping spell, but it failed, and my mother had to intervene.”
He stared at me, unblinking. My confidence faltered as I finished, “But I don’t want to hear even a shred of condemnation, Rykr. You have no moral high ground to condemn me from this time.”
“Thorne is harmless. And he’s not going to get caught. You, on the other hand, have a way of drawing attention and putting both our necks at risk.”
“Says the man who wouldn’t kneel to Lord Haldron yesterday,” I shot back.
“I don’t bow to any man. Not anymore. And definitely not to the likes of Haldron.”
I laughed without humor. “Another lie?”
“An inconvenient truth.”
My mind spun with possibilities, each one darker than the last. Rykr had secrets—more than I could count. What if Thorne wasn’t just a friend, but a scout? What if more Liriens lurked in Emberstone, watching, waiting for the right moment to strike?
And Rykr … was he their leader, or just another pawn in a game I didn’t understand? The bond hummed with his frustration, his tension, but it told me nothing of his true intentions.
Rykr chuckled.
“Something funny?” I glared at him.
“You seem to forget I can hear your thoughts. You’re so self-righteous.”
“I really don’t have the patience for your lectures right now, Rykr. Yes, I almost got caught by a guard, but I was doing nothing wrong. If the damned sleeping spell I tried hadn’t failed, it would have been fine.”
His brows came together. “Sleeping spell?”
“I’ve done it dozens of times. It’s always worked. I don’t know what happened.”
“Have you ever used it on me?”
I shifted, my eyes widening slightly.
What?
“I-I—I don’t see how that’s relevant.”
Rykr advanced, shaking his head. “I knew something felt off when I woke up this morning. Like I’d been drugged. I was shocked enough that you slipped out of the room without you waking me but that’s how you did it, isn’t it? You used a spell.”
Heat flushed my face. “So what? What difference does it make?”
He used his body like armor, approaching with an ease and power that forced me back until I was pinned against the wall behind me. “You know it makes a difference, Seren. If I’d done something like that to you, you’d be accusing me of gods-know-what. That’s the pattern. Treat me like the enemy except when it’s convenient. Everything I do is examined with suspicion of treachery and malice, even when I tell you the truth.”
My breath hitched, anger warring with the thrill of his thigh grazing mine, the way he towered over me, the heat between us like a fuse waiting to be lit. “But you don’t always tell the truth. Your friend didn’t come to tell you about being accused of abandonment, did he?”
“As a matter of fact, he did tell me something, but I didn’t want to risk sharing it in front of your friends—for your sake. Now I’m starting to wonder if I should even tell you.”
“Yes, why would you tell me the truth? You’re a Lirien. A godsdamned lying son-of-a-bitch Lirien. Ready to run back there as soon as you get a chance.”
“The crown of Lirien summons me, Seren. That’s the truth. I’ve never pretended otherwise.” He loomed over me. “You knew I was Lirien when you saved me.”
“There is no crown of Lirien,” I spat back, then shoved him away.
