“Mine changed all at once.” He reached out to stroke my wing, the touch decidedly intimate.
“Mine were just the tips,” I admitted. “Maybe two weeks before Auric arrived. I didn’t even notice until he, um…” I trailed off, swallowing. I was pretty sure I’d already said this once. And if not, well, Novak could infer what happened after that.
Novak traced one of my feathers while he spoke, his eyes following the movement. “So soft.” He stroked the edge, shifting down toward my shoulders. “Beautiful, too.” He leaned forward to inhale, causing Auric to growl from across the room. “And so very sweet.” His eyes lifted to mine, ignoring the mounting tension radiating from the workout area. “I think you’re perfect just the way you are, Layla.”
“That’s enough, Novak,” Auric snapped. “Leave her alone.”
I caught Novak’s wrist as he started to pull away, his nearness and energy soothing the ache inside me. “No. Don’t.” I placed his hand on my wing again, needing his positivity and strength. “Tell me how you tried to reform. What did you mean by the Nora code?”
I’d started listening to their conversation shortly before that moment. Right around the time Novak had asked Auric what he would do if I couldn’t be reformed.
“As a warrior,” he explained in a low hum of sound, his fingers drawing through my feathers once more, petting and stroking me like one would an intended lover. “Protect the Nora at all costs. Worship the dukedom. Only kill in the name of the Nora way. Remember that the Noir are our enemies. Reform and repent above all else. Pray King Sefid forgives us all.”
The last sentence was uttered in a hush, his long lashes splaying over his cheekbones for a moment before lifting to capture my gaze once more.
“Do you think your father forgives your Fall?” he asked. “Or do you think he is testing you by having two unworthy yet compatible mates locked with you in a cell?”
My eyebrows lifted. “A test?”
“To force you to learn from your mistakes of disrespect,” he added. “By taunting you with real prospects he believes are below your station.” He cocked his head. “What a terrible situation to bestow upon a daughter. Forcing her to face the two mates she should never have, just to return her to a dukedom full of incompatibles.”
His eyes slid upward to Auric, who had come to stand over us with his hands fisted angrily at his sides. But his expression held a note of surprise, one likely rivaled by my own.
“Do you think my father would do that?” I asked, not really sure who I was talking to. Maybe to myself. More likely to Auric. “But wouldn’t that punish you both as well?”
“At this point, I probably deserve it,” Novak replied, his lips curling into a smile that revealed two subtle dimples that disappeared in his next breath. “But I doubt Auric deserves such a fate.” He looked up at the warrior once more. “A faithful commander to the royal service for over a century. Handpicked by the king himself to guard his only daughter. I can’t imagine why he would wish to torture you in this manner.”
“Yet the punishment suits the crime,” he replied, his voice gruff with emotion. “Force Layla to survive two viable mates who could never be suitors, just to teach her how to properly respect the rules. A twisted, cruel flirtation with fate.”
“Indeed,” Novak agreed, his touch slipping from my feathers to brush my breasts as he ventured to my other wing.
I shivered, aware that his stroke had been intentional, because I could see the calculated gleam in his eyes.
Temptation.
Yearning.
Destiny.
“Auric is a loyal warrior. He won’t break his vow. But no such rules apply to me,” Novak continued. “I’m the trump card in this wicked deck of fate.” His breath was on my neck, his lips skimming my pulse. “Do you suppose that means I’m within my rights to seduce the female who is meant to be mine? Because I don’t believe in the rules. Not anymore. And propriety died in me a very long time ago.”
I trembled, his heat beckoning me to lean closer to him and to angle my neck to grant him better access to my throat.
“Novak,” Auric warned.
“It’s not your decision to make,” Novak mused, his tongue licking a path up to my ear. “Layla has a choice. She’s always had a choice. The answer to her reform is in rejecting her desired mates. And even then, who knows if reform will ever even happen? Will she be tormented like this for months? Years? Decades? Perhaps even eternity.”
He nipped my earlobe, his breath hot against my skin, causing goose bumps to pebble down my arms. “Novak,” I whispered, a plea in my voice. One I didn’t fully understand. I wanted him to stop. But I also couldn’t bear the notion of him pulling away from me now.
Auric uttered his name again as well, his anger a whiplash to my senses. But it wasn’t enough to pull me out of Novak’s spell. His leathery scent wrapped around me in a blanket of invitation, his essence calling to mine and pulling my soul to the surface of my body, begging for a date to play.
“An eternity of waiting,” he breathed. “What if we waste all that time waiting for a reform that was never destined to exist? We’re supposedly in a prison full of those who are on the edge of reform, or that was what Auric mentioned the purpose of this place being. Yet everyone in the yard today was someone from our previous reformatory. Are those special reformers being kept somewhere else? Or do they simply not exist?”
He pulled away to stare up at a smoldering Auric, the two men entering a battle of looks and quiet glares.
“Have you known anyone to reform?” Novak asked him after a beat. “Anyone at all?”
Auric’s jaw ticked. Then finally he said, “No.”
