Page 74 of Wings of Destruction

Diplomacy doesn’t end at the war table. It’s something you cultivate through your life, a skill rather than something you’re born with. And I learned from my mother⁠—

You treat all women with respect. As much as possible, anyway. I’ve played it on a second-to-second basis, and sometimes, I fall short. But not today, not with Evie.

She pauses at the door and holds her hands out in an X, blocking my exit and hers.

She dips her chin, her lashes fluttering shut, black against her skin. “I’ve never thrown myself at a man before.”

There’s nothing to say that won’t dig me deeper into this trap. I force my expression into something that might pass for regret, letting my voice drop to something almost intimate.

“You know I’d rather be anywhere else but here, managing family expectations and political obligations.” I gesture vaguely toward the door. “But timing, as always, is everything.”

The truth wrapped in misdirection—let her think it’s about circumstances, not interest.

It’s a skillful evasion of a mess. I huff out a breath when the door closes with me on one side and Evie on the other. A mess for so many reasons. I finally get her to leave but sitting in the room feels like a cage now.

A cage dipped in gold is still a prison. I’ve been beating myself against different types of bars my entire life.

Tonight, I can do something about it.

Anything.

Well, not anything, because sex is the last thing on my mind despite having a more than willing partner.

I back away toward the mahogany armoire on the far side of the room and pull open the doors, shuffling through the clothes inside.

After changing, I wait a perfunctory five minutes then glance out to make sure Evie is nowhere in sight. The coast is clear so I slip around to the smaller staircase at the end of the hall leading me, as always, down into the bulk of the mountain.

The cave system is a welcome damp cool compared to the stifling halls of the castle and I tug at my collar to will the chilly air across my chest. Even my room isn’t safe anymore if Evie can come and go whenever she gets a wild hair.

What’s going to happen the next time she decides to drop in on me?

Will locking the door deter her? I have doubts.

You’re never going to be able to outrun her, Mozi hisses in my head.

I don’t need to run, just keep one step ahead until this is done.

I make the turns without conscious thought and eventually the tunnel opens up into the same large space Astrid had pointed out to me before. And lucky me.

Things are turning around.

The woman herself adds me to her slow perusal of the space. “And?”

She sizes me up with a slow glide of perusal and apparently finds a lot lacking.

“And what?” I set my stance wide.

“If you want me to flatten you, Kieran, then say so.”

My grin widens slowly. “I’d never be so direct with it.”

“You don’t have to be direct. You give yourself away every time. You’re a terrible actor,” Astrid finishes.

“You’re the actor if you believe you have a chance of taking me down.”

Her voice goes low. “I would have if Headmistress Harbi hadn’t taken you out of sparring class.”

But we both know that Astrid is more than capable of taking me down, which is why I subconsciously sought her out. I need an outlet. Something to get rid of this pulsing energy inside of me.