“No, no. Please.” Kira shook her head. “I love girl talk.”
It was exactly what Mellie needed to hear. She chuckled with relief. “Oh good. I won't pry, but I'm always here if you need to talk. Always.”
Not pry? Kira doubted that. Mellie might be a treasure box of information. She seemed eager to talk, and not the type to be kept quiet. “That's sweet.”
Now, Mellie rushed back to Zayne. “I'm sorry I was so mean to you.” She looped an arm around his middle and rested against his chest. “You're my grump. And you're finally home. Safe and sound.”
Seeing someone so bubbly cling to him—seeing anyone touch him, actually—jarred Kira. He looked so impossible to reach, but Mellie effortlessly caught hold of him.
“Yeah,” Zayne said quietly. Maybe just to himself. Eyes on the window away from everyone, he placed a hand on her back.
Mellie's arms tightened around him, and the fear she must have carried every day he spent at war broke through her cheer. It lasted only a moment before she leaned back with a bright smile.
“Come get a plate of food, Mellie.” Adelle returned to the kitchen.
The spring tornado rushed from the room with the same swiftness with which she'd entered this morning, leaving Kira alone with Zayne once more.
He eyed the kitchen doorway. “I'll take care of your story with her later.”
“Thanks. I guess.”
“You did well, but you're not her friend. She'll never be read in. Understand?”
Snorting, she settled back against the wall. “You think I don't know that? I'm her fiancé’s prisoner.”
“She's the defense secretary's daughter.” The air between them thickened, full of his brooding. “Offer the least amount of information that's necessary.”
“Yes, sir.”
His gaze returned to the window. “I'm leaving for a week to attend to business in the territories. My mother will take care of anything you need while I'm gone.”
Good riddance.
Kira wanted to say it to his face.
“Mellie is loyal.” The whisper almost sounded like a trick of the ears. He wasn't looking at her, and his lips hardly moved. “Be careful.”
The fleeting kindness he showed her in the woods last night felt real once more, though it fell short of his eyes.
This time, he spoke clearly. “If my father or brother comes while I'm gone, do whatever they say.” His eyes locked onto hers, hard as ever. “Do not anger them.”
Fear wrapped its unyielding hands around her throat, but the disorientation was worse. Disorientation from how begrudgingly he cared about her, and how he showed it in the coldest way possible.
Had the Phaedra considered the possibility that just as much as Zayne crept into her heart, she might get into his? Or were they all so confident in the ice protecting him, the ice Dr. Cooper forced into him, that they didn't worry?
Those snakes dipping in and out of the collar of his shirt looked menacing at the moment. He didn't earn that badge of honor for enduring his own scars but by having the strength and loyalty not to save his friends. That mark probably earned full confidence in his ability to overlook the humanity in her.
Kira may find herself in his position soon. It was terrifyingly easy to imagine Dr. Cooper submerging her friends in the tank, their screams unmet as they gasped in the water and died. What would she do if that day came? Would she hand over the lives of innocent strangers to save the people she loved?
Her gaze fell to the scales of the snakes, her skin crawling. Did the softness in Zayne matter when he could watch his friends suffer and die?
The greatest kindness Zayne offered her had been to warn her about who he really was. Warning her to never fall for the ruse of a man who cared but followed orders anyway.
That man who plucked a fresh spring bud from the tree to give to her looked long, long gone.
CHAPTER 19
Kira
