Theo turned to face her, his expression stoic and grim. No longing in his eyes, no burning desire like what she had seen the night he brought her to his room.
“Yes?” That callous voice rang.
Seeing him up close made her head hurt. Why would she ever run from his bed? She had the urge to trail her fingers down those intricate bloodred tattoos, whirling up and down his sculpted back. But that other form of his... It was a gut reaction to run.
She schooled her face into neutrality, trying to mirror his. “They said you left to patrol the border... to look for the ones who attacked Aaron.”
“That’s right.” He wasn’t giving her much at all.
“And?” she probed.
“We found nothing.” Despite his vacant expression, there was a trace of frustration there. “Is that all?” He turned away from her.
It was driving her insane, his lack of emotion, his hot-and-cold nature.
“No, that’s not all.” She grabbed his arm, bringing him back around to face her. “They told me what you can do... what you have done to others. Tell me the truth about the night I ran. When you had your paws on my throat. That’s when you found out I could block your power, wasn’t it?”
He worked his molars together, their grinding disrupting the silence. She took it as confirmation.
“So, you tried to hurt me, as soon as I arrived, just like you hurt Breyer.”
He tensed as if she had struck him. “The first time we met,” he said tightly, “I recall you trying to pierce my neck with a kitchen knife,Highness. Quit feigning innocence.”
Highness. So they were back right where they started.
“I was defending myself! You took me in the night, you forced me here, uprooted me from everything I knew!” She glared at him. “I’ve been talking to your soldiers. I’ve heard their stories.Everyonehere got a choice in coming here—everyone but me.”
He bristled at the truth.
“If you need me so badly, why did you leave for so long? Why would you waste all that time chasing trails no one has been able to find in twenty years? I’ve been trying to prepare myself for a trial, but it’s not enough. I can’t train my magic with anyone else. I thought you said you were going to help me?”
His jaw ticked. “Help you?” He moved closer. She felt so off balance around him, but she held her ground.
“I have offered my helpmanytimes.” That broad frame towered above her as her frustration grew. “Quit acting like a wounded child. You know the threat. You know what you need to do... so stop making up excuses and do it!”
Her shoulders shrank inward. She knew she had made things difficult, fighting him almost every step of the way. These past weeks she had been trying—really trying. If he had been here, he would have seen that.
And if he had been here, she could have been learning to control her shadows. She could have practiced without the fear of drawing something to her that would end not just her life but those of her new companions. She thought of all those candles Lionel had shown her, all the lives lost already.
“Then give me the bone dagger now. Since you’re so keen on letting me do things my way.” Her throat bobbed at her own request. At the understanding that using that ancient artifact meant her mortal death, with only thepossibilityof returning, not the certainty.
Theo took his paw of a hand and brought it down over his mouth, wiping away his frustration. “You aren’t ready.”
“How would you know? You’ve been gone!” Her defensive fury radiated throughout her entire body.
“If you use it now, you’re not coming back.”
“Then do what you promised and make me ready, you insufferable ass!” she gritted out.
There it was again. That flicker of anger in his eyes. He arched his back to meet her nose to nose, a snarl etched on his tanned, glistening skin.
“I may be an insufferableassand a bastard and all the names you sling my way. At least my men come looking for me if I go missing. They may not be blood, but I matter to my kin. Can you say the same?” Absolute venom. This wasn’t about her training, not at all. She had hurt him; her rejection was fueling this altercation. His clear intention was to push her far, far away.
And it was working. Those words were spikes of ice stabbing into her heart. No, she couldn’t say the same.
She reinforced her stonelike expression and parted her lips to spew her own poison right back. But before she could, she felt something behind her. She knew that space had been unoccupied, then the slightest gust of wind blew strands of her hair forward, and she knew.
Callum.
