He turned toward me. “I shouldn’t have asked you to come,” he said. “It’s not safe.”
“You said there might be somewhere safer? What did you mean by that?” I asked. “I just want to protect my family. What’s left of it. I can’t think. I can’t eat.”
He nodded slowly. “I’m glad you came. I wanted to see you.”
“Why would they do that? Why would they kill them?” I choked.
“For breaking the law,” he replied. "Under the Eye, relations between men are forbidden.”
”He didn’t do anything wro—It was never forbidden before. Not here,” I said.
“It is now, under the Law of the Eye—”
“But it wasn’t. Not before—”
“Before was disorder. Corruption,” he said. ”We’re cleansing the rot.”
“The rot?” I gasped.
He didn’t blink. ”By restoring purity we build a better world.”
I stared at him.
“It’s not right.”
“I know this is hard,” he said. Then his voice dropped. “There’s still one way I could help.”
He stepped closer.
“If you were mine,” he said. “I could protect you. And your family.”
I felt so stupid, it was never about helping me. What had I been thinking? That he cared? That he would help me because it was the right thing to do?
I felt sick.
“I noticed your hand,” he said. “No ring.”
My fingers were bare. He had noticed. Of course he had noticed.
“I’m leaving soon,” he went on. ”They’ve promoted me to Commander of the Order. I’ll have status. Wealth. Everything I’ve worked for.”
My head was spinning.
“Everything I want,” he added. "Except one thing…”
I didn’t have to ask, I already knew where he was going. Why he wanted to see me.
“A wife,” he said.
I needed time. Space. Air. If I’d had it, maybe I would’ve said yes. Not because I trusted him, or because I wanted to. But because I was scared, and I had no other way out.
But Arche didn’t give me time.
His hand lifted to my face, his fingers brushed my cheek, slow and careful.
“I come home after long days,” he murmured, “and I long for a warm meal, and a family. A beautiful woman to warm my bed.”
His hand lingered, but it wasn’t affection. I wasn’t a person to him. I was a possession. The nausea came fast, curling through me like a warning. I understood now, what he really wanted.
