“Did you evenaskher if this is what she wanted?” Rohak asked.
The silence after Rohak’s accusing question was deafening. Sometime during his friend’s speech, Lord d’Refan had stopped twirling the whiskey glass in his hands, the rainbows I’d eagerly traced with my eyes halted in their dance.
“Tell me how you really feel, Rohak,” Lord d’Refan grumbled quietly with a shake of his head. He chuffed a self-deprecating laugh before closing his eyes and tossing his head back. His whole body seemed to vibrate with tension and barely restrained anger, and I fought the urge to spring from my perch on the armchair’s cushion and flee to my room, where I’d be safe from this provoked predator.
All at once, Lord d’Refan’s head snapped forward as the hand holding his empty whiskey glass wound up behind his back. In a motion nearly too quick to track, Lord d’Refan loosed the glass at the opposite wall. It sailed through the air, rainbows of light spitting in quick patterns across the bookcases as it flew, before connecting with the unforgiving stone. A deafeningcrackbroke the blanket of silence before shards of glass tinkled as they came to rest on the floor.
“FUCK!” Lord d’Refan shouted, and I unintentionally flinched. Rohak’s emerald eyes flicked to me once before resettling on his friend. “Fuck, Rohak! You don’t think I know all of that?! That what I did to her . . .” Lord d’Refan trailed off as his hands wound into his black strands, gripping tight. He released his hair before striding aggressively toward Rohak, flinging a menacing finger in his face.
“Everything that I’ve done, every shitty decision I’ve made since we wereboyshad a purpose! A reason! A reason youdamn well know, General,” he roared, spittle flying to land on Rohak’sperfectly pressed tunic. “Do you think I wanted to do those things to her?”
Not once during Lord d’Refan’s tirade did Rohak flinch or blink. He simply watched his closest friend unravel with an unwavering intensity. I suddenly felt like I was intruding on a conversation that was much too private. There was something between these two powerful men—something broken—that couldn’t be fixed with me in the room.
“I think—no, Iknowyou have an agenda, Alois. Where these actions fall in that agenda, I am woefully uninformed. Perhaps you could shed some light on it for me.” His statement commanded authority, even with the Lord of Vespera looming over him. The intensity caused bumps of arousal to erupt over my skin.
Why is that so hot?
“Fuck, Rohak,” Lord d’Refan said, quieter now as he dropped the finger from Rohak’s face. He paced back to the bar cart, procuring a new tumbler before filling it full. He sipped from it leisurely, his back heaving with each breath.
Rohak and I waited in stilted silence.
“Things have . . . changed. Drastically,” he muttered the last word while sipping from his glass again.
“I have to know, Rune Master,” Lord d’Refan continued with forced calm. “Is it possible?”
I jumped slightly at being addressed and at the sudden change in conversation.
“Is—” I coughed to clear my throat. “Is what possible, sir?”
“Can she be Life Bonded even though she has no need for a Vessel?”
Rohak’s eyes snapped to me, the intensity of his stare a heady thing that nearly had me squirming both in discomfort and arousal.
I had a choice, now, to either tell Lord d’Refan about my research and predictions, or continue to keep them locked safe and away. My eyes unbiddenly found Rohak’s, and I searched his cold gaze for something—anything.
After a moment’s pause that felt like a lifetime, Rohak narrowed his eyes and shook his head slightly.
“No,” I rushed out, making my decision, my eyes never leaving Rohak. “No, it’s not possible. A Mage must Bond a Vessel for it to work.” I tried to infuse as much conviction in my voice as possible.
I couldn’t describe the feeling I got when I saw an ounce of approval in Rohak’s glare. It settled something in my soul, sparking hope that we could return to what we were before. Rohak was my confidant—the person I could tell all of my crazy musings to without fear of judgement or rebuke. I also knew that Rohak would take my findings to his grave, unless I gave him permission to share with others.
How nice it would be to have someone to share the burden of information with again.
Lord d’Refan spun around, his normally erratic eyes trained unnervingly on me, searching for any sign of deception.
He grunted.
“You tell no lies,” he admitted with a begrudging acceptance, and I inwardly sighed with relief, nearly forgetting that he was a Truthsayer—thelastTruthsayer. His power to detect truths and lies was unheard of and unerringly correct.
Lying to him should be impossible.
But, somehow, I just did.
The why, though, was completely unknown and just another puzzle I needed to solve. I was already overwhelmed with the number of secrets I needed to unearth—what was one more?
I have to get into that Academy library . . . and soon.
“Then I would ask, Rune Master, that you keep an eye on her for me. She could use a female friend. One who is not her maid. Perhaps draw a few health runes on her if you can or something,” he muttered, and I gave him a curt nod. “You’re dismissed.”
