“You’ll stay with me, no matter what.”
“No matter what.”
I studied him as I clasped my hands before me. I squeezed them until my bones ground together, but I couldn’t stop.
He grasped my hands, halting the motion. “Ellery, tell me.”
“Stay with me.”
“I’m always with you.”
Unexpected tears burned my eyes before I blinked them away. I was exhausted and scared, and it had been a horrible day, but hewasalways with me.
I squeezed his hands before releasing them.Rip the bandage off; it’s better that way.
“Gaius came to the manor today.”
Ryker’s eyebrows rose. I could tell this wasn’t what he’d expected me to say; he’d probably suspected it would be something to do with his father.
“What did he say?” he asked.
Taking a deep breath, I braced myself before I blurted out everything… or at least most of it. I wasn’t ready to talk about that awful kiss.
In the beginning, while I spoke, Ryker remained unmoving. As I continued talking, he walked away to pace through the trees before coming back again.
When I got to the part where Gaius wandered into my home and I had no idea where he went, Ryker’s eyes turned black, and lightning sparks flew between his fingertips. The sight of his unraveling caused my words to come faster until almost all the story was out.
When I finished talking, Ryker stopped ten feet away from me. Lightning filled his now black eyes and danced around his wrist. The sparks illuminated the trees surrounding him and lit the otherwise dark woods.
“He wants my land,” I said.
“He wants you as much as the land, maybe more so.”
“I’m not… I, uh… yeah… maybe.”
Before yesterday, I would have said he was wrong, but I could still feel Gaius’s tongue thrusting against mine. And I could still see the fury in his eyes when Ruby interrupted us.
“What aren’t you telling me?” he asked.
Unable to look at him, I stared at the trees and started wringing my hands again. “You have to promise me you won’t go after him.”
He went so still that the lightning around his wrists stopped moving. A hush fell over the forest, or maybe I blocked all sound out as I held my breath and stared at the powerful, incensed man across from me.
He was a ticking time bomb, and I was terrified I was about to light the fuse.
CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE
Ellery
“What. Aren’t. You. Telling. Me?”Ryker bit out.
“Promise me,” I pleaded.
Strands of lightning rose from the ground to encase his wrists. It looked like he was bound to the earth, but I knew how easily he could break those electrical chains.
“Ellery—”
“He’s the head of Ivan’s guard now. You have to promise me that you’ll stay away from him.”
