“Did you know about this?” she demanded, her nose scrunching in frustration as she studied me.
“Yes,” I answered honestly, unsure if that was the answer she was wanting at this moment in time.
“Humph.” She stepped back in frustration, pacing the floor as she stared at me. Her hands dug into her hair, brown curls twisting before she whirled, grabbing a pillow from her bed and launching it in my direction. “Should I just add this to the list of things you’vekeptfrom me since we’ve met?” she demanded as the pillow flew across the room.
My jaw clenched as I stared at the female before me, unsure how to answer.
“Well,” she demanded.
“What did you want me to say?” I asked. “Would you have preferred I simply claimed you the moment the mark appeared on my skin? Mark you then and there so everyone in the vicinity would know you weremineand mine alone? Would you have preferred that, starlight?”
I watched her throat bob, her cheeks flushing a dusty pink color as her mouth opened, then closed, then opened again. “I-I—” She stopped pacing for a moment before she finally spoke. “I don’t know. I don’t know, okay?” She paused, her breathing stuttering as she looked up at me. “How long have you known?”
I held her gaze as I answered, “From the very moment you ran into me in the halls of Solis Court and insulted my wingspan.”
Her cheeks flushed at the reminder of her insult. I stepped forward, moving toward her until her back hit the wall in the bedroom.
“And you never once thought to tell me?”
“Don’t put words in my mouth,” I replied as I put my hands on the wall on either side of her, caging her in. “I considered telling you many times, but I was in the middle of an assignment, and you had far too much going on. I didn’t think breaking the news about a starbound mark—that you couldn’t evensee—was the right course of action.”
She processed my words, her tongue subconsciously darting out over her lips, drawing my eyes to the movement, and it took everything in me not to kiss her then and there.
“I suppose I could see your point,” she admitted reluctantly. “At Brumalis, when you said you couldfeelmy pain,” she said as her head tilted up to stare at me through lowered lashes. “You actually meant that you couldfeelmy pain? Like, physically, right?”
I nodded, running a hand through my hair. “Yes, I did. It’s common for emotions and feelings to be felt between starbound mates,” I admitted.
She bit on her lip, thinking for a moment before she spoke. “Yes, I remember being taught that, but that would explain whymychest hurt when I threw the book atyou.”
A bark of laughter fell from my lips as I stared at the female before me. “Yes, yes, it would.”
“That’s very inconvenient,” she admitted.
“Does that mean I can expect less book-throwing in my future?”
Her eyes twinkled in the soft lighting of her room as she replied, “I suppose I’ll just have to find other ways to express my frustration.”
“I look forward to seeing what you come up with,” I answered. “And, Raelyna,” I continued as I dropped one hand, wrapping it around her waist as she looked up at me, uncertainty flickering across her features.
“Yes?” Her voice was soft as she waited for me to speak.
“I would have told you . . . about the starbound mark, I mean.” I stared down at her, tracing over each feature on her face before continuing. “I just . . . I wanted you to have a choice. I wanted . . . I don’t know. I was in the middle of a mission—fuck, I still am. And with everything that’s going on, I just wanted you to find out in a more normal way. Not like this,” I said, gesturing around.
She laughed softly, her lip curving up in a grin. “Well, for the future, stalking me around the Quarter isn’t giving me a choice.”
“You’re hard to stay away from,” I replied as my own lip curved up slightly. I hesitated briefly, despising the idea of what I was about to tell her, before I reluctantly spoke. “Everything you need to break Orela out of the temple should be in here.” I gestured toward a bag I’d dropped by the door.
“You actually brought stuff. Thank you.” Her smile lit up the room as she unzipped the bag and sorted through its contents. This was perhaps the other questionable part of my plan, seeing as Elion had no knowledge that I’d raided the armory, taking a multitude of high-tech tools with me—ones that had a good likelihood of not returning to the Guild for the foreseeable future.
Raelyna’s nose scrunched, and she turned, looking at me in confusion. “Um, what exactly does this one do?” She held a sleek, metal tool between two pinched fingers as though she were worried thetoolwould attackher.
A huff of laughter slipped my lips. “It’s a pulse omitter,” I answered.
“A what?” She stared at me in horror.
“No.” I shook my head as I explained. “If you set it in the room you’re standing in, it will push out waves in the air, cancelling out your pulses. That way, if there are any vitas in the building, searching for extra heartbeats, yours won’t be detected, and you can stay under the radar.”
“Oh.” Her lips formed a soft “O” shape as the word fell from her mouth in surprise. “I didn’t know such a thing existed. That’s actually . . . Well, that’s really useful.”
