Unable to take the silence or his staring, I spoke again. “If you don’t believe me, I can show you.”
His silver eyes bore into mine. Dark stubble covered the lower half of his rigid, handsome face.
I’d spent a lot of time memorizing the contours of his features and had seen many different expressions cross them, but I’d never seen the stony countenance on them now. If I didn’t know better, I would think he was one of the gargoyles rumored to have once resided here.
“That won’t be necessary,” he finally said.
“My mother is the only one who knows about it… and now you.”
He slowly lowered his hands and sat back in the chair again as he tried to resume his casual demeanor. He failed.
CHAPTERTHIRTY-THREE
Ellery
Tension radiated from him,and he couldn’t hide his astonishment as his gaze ran over me. When his eyes settled on mine again, he stared before speaking again.
“Howis that possible?”
“I don’t know. I’ve never known, and my parents never had any idea either; maybe you could ask Tucker?—”
“Nooneelse is to know about this,” he interrupted. “For now, at least, this stays between us.”
The sharp tone of his voice caused me to gulp. “I’m not a threat.”
“But youare… to them. As a female lightning bearer, they’d crave your power and genetics, but this… this…”—his eyes ran over me again—”thisis something entirely different. There’s no way to know how Ivan, my father, and the original nobles would react to you. No one is to know about this, Ellery.”
His words irritated me. “I’ve been keeping this secret most of my life. I think I can keep it hidden for a while longer. And I wasn’t suggesting youtellTucker; I was saying maybe you couldaskhim. He might have seen something in the temple that could help me understand why I can control all five of them.”
“No, not after I told him about your lightning-bearer ability. Tucker is far from stupid; he’d piece two and two together real fast. I trust him with my life, butnooneelse is to know about this.”
He ran a hand through his hair and pulled at the ends until it stood out around his head. I felt raw and exposed, but he was more disturbed by my revelation than I was.
“Fuck, Ellery, why didn’t you tell me about this sooner?”
“What difference would it have made?”
“I would have gotten you out of Tempest before the curse happened.”
“They unleashed the curse before we had any real kind of relationship. We’d only kissed by then and barely. How was I supposed to trust you with this when I’ve never even told Scarlet?”
“You still should have told me.”
Ryker rose and, with choppy movements, paced to the doorway and back to the chair. I’d never seen him so ungraceful; normally, his body flowed like the smooth elegance of the mercury his eyes resembled. Now, he looked like a puppet with a three-year-old jerking on its strings.
I didn’t know why he was so upset, considering that yesterday he’d told me to fuck off, but my revelation had completely rattled him.
“How is this possible?” he muttered.
I didn’t answer, mainly because there wasn’t one, and I didn’t think he expected me to. So, I sat and watched while he paced back and forth for a few more minutes as he muttered to himself.
At first, his uncharacteristic antics amused me, but I was growing bored when he finally stopped and turned to face me. He opened his mouth to say something before closing it to stare at me again.
If I hadn’t seen how much he loathed me in his eyes yesterday, I might think his reaction was because he still cared about me a little. While I wanted to believe that, I’d destroyed whatever feelings he had for me when I lied to him.
I’d hurt him, and while I was sure he could understandwhyI’d kept some things from him, understanding wasn’t enough to save us. We would work together to do what we could to save the realm,ifhe could get over his shock at my final revelation sometime soon.
“You’ll go to the palace and tell Ivan he can have half of your crops this year. If it’s not enough, give himallof them, but do what you must to free your mother and get out of there.
