“Possibly.”
“You hide behind cruelty because it is easier than admitting she destroyed you.”
The air changed.
Rhen’s hand closed around the edge of the dresser beside hers, splitting the wood beneath his fingers.
His voice remained quiet.
“Leena is not a weapon you are capable of using against me. Attempt it again, and your usefulness will not save you from the lesson.”
Fear moved through Veya, but anger held her upright.
“I hate you.”
“Good. Hatred is more useful than expectation.”
Rhen released the broken wood and turned away.
Veya watched him cross toward the door.
“Where are you going?”
“Somewhere your voice cannot reach me.”
Shadow gathered around him and erased him from the room.
Veya stood alone with her body still burning and Rhen’s words lodged beneath her skin.
The tether reacted to his absence with another vicious pull, but the pain had nothing to do with love. It was physical dependence forced upon her by a male who considered her no more than an object with temporary value.
Humiliation broke through what remained of her control.
Veya collapsed to her knees, shaking as tears and curses left her together.
Dax stood unseen in the corridor with his fists clenched at his sides.
He had heard every word.
When Rhen disappeared, Dax stepped through the open door.
Chapter 30
The present disappeared beneath a memory before shadow had fully released Rhen.
For one disorienting moment, he was no longer standing inside the compound after leaving Veya on the floor of his quarters. He was seated upon a battered leather couch in the old infirmary with blood moving down his ribs in thick streams.
Cole sat shirtless beside him with one eye swelling and a cut splitting his brow. Malakai lay unconscious on the second couch, his boots still on and a freshly bandaged wound crossing one shoulder.
Leena stood in the center of the wreckage.
She had rolled her sleeves to the elbows and held a ribbon between her teeth while tying back her hair. Lavender and antiseptic scented the room. She had already cleaned Malakai’s injury while scolding him beneath her breath, and now she had turned her attention toward Rhen.
“You would think you had been born without common sense,” she said while threading a needle. “I told you to duck. I did not tell you to walk directly into the blade.”
Rhen remained still while she cleaned the wound.
The alcohol burned through the torn flesh, and his body reacted before he could suppress the flinch.
