Page 116 of Facade

His gaze hardened as he looked into his glass.

“We couldn’t risk them gaining power through you.”

A whipping from Blanche would have been better than his words. Hell, I’d take the infuriating pain in my back over this.

“That’s the only reason?” I snapped before I could stop myself. Ryker straightened, brows furrowing further. Tears burned my eyes, and as he opened his mouth to speak, I cut him off, not wanting him to see the hurt—

“What makes you think the Queen killed your mother? You didn’t actually say.” I kept my gaze from him, willing my tears not to fall.

He cleared his throat.

“I received word my mother was gravely ill while I was off continent. I returned in time to say goodbye. It’d been too sudden—I knew there’d been foul play. I talked to the staff and watched the Queen from the shadows as she tended her herb garden and saw her grove of deadly plants. That’s when I knew. She loathed me—my very presence, but she had absolutely hated my mother. Besides, my father had me watched too closely for her to get to me. But my mother… I should've been there,” he growled.

“I’m sorry. I had no idea.” The words felt empty. I was sorry—I hated that he'd experienced that. But I was still digging out the knife twisting in my heart from his other admission.

“I should be apologizing to you. I should never have allowed myself to… grow close to you. To agree to train you. Especially with the truth of who I was still hidden. It was selfish and—”

“And I matched you.” I finished for him, my voice cold as I attempted to mask the hurt and failed.

His jaw worked.

“That’s why you looked shocked that night.” My cheeks burned as I thought of the implications of matching him. Gargoyles matched when we went through the proper steps, one of which was sex in our Gargoyle form. Yet, I matched him before that.

Images triggered through my mind of that night and how it had felt to kiss him, feel his touch, feel him inside me. Heat rushed further down my body as I tried to shake off the memory, only to trigger more images.

His gaze hardened as his jaw worked. “Yes. It’s been known to happen outside of the usual rituals.” He exhaled. “Don’t worry about it.”

It was as if I’d been thrown into an icy lake. Thrown in with no hope of getting out. All of the heat evaporated from my body, replaced with a cold wave of embarrassment.

“Sure,” I forced out and abruptly stood. “So that night meant nothing.” My voice shook with anger. “And saving me was never about me at all, but about Aiden and the Fae. Keeping power from them. That about sum it up?”

His attention snapped to me, eyes brightening.

“That’s not what I meant.”

“It’s fine. You were the first male to show me kindness, and I misread it for something else.” I turned my back to him, snatching the cream blanket from the couch and stalking for the room. “You don’t owe me anything. I—”

I jumped as he was suddenly in front of me, pinning me to the spot beneath his gaze.

“Evanee, I abandoned our people to look for you. Not because of Aiden or magic powers—because I fucking lost it when I found out you were missing.”

Every nerve in my body prickled from his words. As if electricity danced beneath my skin.

“Then why downplay my color matching yours?”

“Because it should’ve never happened. I shouldn’t have allowed anything to grow between us.”

I ground my teeth, my eyes stinging. “But they did.”

I pushed past him into the room, slamming the door shut and shoved a chair up under the doorknob for good measure. The cool wood of the door eased my feverish brow. My breath hitched as the shadow of his boots stretched beneath the door. But I let that breath go shakily, gut sinking lower, as the shadows receded, followed by a door slamming.

33

Aniah

I hadn’t been to Castle Lawryn in close to fifty years. The last time I came here, my sisters and the Coven had come for a royal wedding. I thought it odd we were all invited. Even stranger when the Council said we were required to be here, no exceptions.

Now I understood.