My hands shook as I followed him into the room and discovered him sitting in the oversized, cream chair furthest from the door.
He’d turned on the lamp between it and the matching couch, draped his arm over the back of the chair, and lifted one leg to cross it at the ankle on his knee. His posture was casual, but his eyes were that cold, distant silver I despised.
Feeling like I was walking to my doom, I shuffled toward the sofa set horizontally across the room and sat. I kept my shoulders back as I folded my hands demurely in my lap and stared at the window across from me. Normally, it provided a view of the Revenant Woods, but it had been days since I’d bothered to open the drapes.
When the silence stretched endlessly, I looked at Ryker while waiting for him to unleash his wrath on me.
CHAPTERTWENTY-EIGHT
Ryker
I hadn’t consideredit possible, but Ellery looked worse today than yesterday. Dark circles surrounded her puffy, bloodshot eyes; she’d obviously cried at some point, but I saw no tears now.
She sat with her back straight and her hands in her lap while staring at me. She looked demure, but I knew Ellery was anythingbutdocile.
She was wild, fearless, and deceptive when it came to so many things, but now she looked defeated. I’d never considered it possible to see her like this, and I hated that it bothered me so much.
My gaze went to the small piece of luggage sitting by the door. “Why are you going to the palace?” When I shifted my attention back to her, my eyes narrowed. “And do us both a favor and don’t lie.”
“I’m going to hand myself over to the king. I’ll tell him what I can do and hope he releases my mother in exchange for my ability.”
“And if he doesn’t?”
“Do you really think he won’t, or are you just trying to make this more difficult?”
I almost smiled; she looked beaten and exhausted, but her temper and defiance remained. “You know what he’ll do to you, or let the aristocrats do, if you reveal you’re a lightning bearer.”
“Yes.”
“Do you really?”
“I’m not an idiot, Ryker!” she snapped. “I know this is the end of my freedom. Iknowwhat they’ll do to me.”
“And you’re still going to hand yourself over to him?”
“Better him than your father.”
“He might give you to my father.”
She winced, but her lips remained compressed into a thin line as she stared at me.
“Why not give him the manor?” I asked.
“I already told you why. I won’t let my mother and Scarlet’s family lose everything because of my poor choices. By turning myself over, they can still have homes and an income.”
“Only while Ivan allows them to.”
Her nostrils flared as her hands clenched until her knuckles turned white. “What else am I supposed to do, Ryker? Hand over the manor and take away the only home most of them have known? Go live in the woods? Kill the king or try for one of the aristocrats? I wouldn’t get more than one or two before being brought down.
“They’d lock me away or destroy me if I succeededandif I failed to kill someone. If I try to destroy him, the nobles will burn this place to the ground and hunt everyone I love. They may hate Ivan as much as me, but they’d still come after me with everything they have.”
She’d become ahugethreat to them if she tried going after the king or one of them. “They would.”
“Plus, I’m not a killer.”
Not yet, but if she handed herself over to them, by the time they finished with her, Ellery would gladly unleash hell on her captors.
“I’m not like you. I have no power and wealth in this realm andnoother options,” she continued. “My life will never be the same after this; I understand that. They’re going to breed me or maybe marry me off to someone. I don’t know howyourworld works.”
