Page 89 of Thief of Hearts

He looked outraged. “How could you possibly think that I would hurt you?”

I turned sideways and showed him my bound wrists.

“That’s different. I had to tie you up to make sure that you wouldn’t steal the stone back from me. Because you’re right, in a fight between us I would lose. Not that it did me any good. Why would the stone say your name? Are you the answer or was it claiming you as its mistress?”

Did he think I was going to help him solve this mystery? “I can’t believe how much time and emotion I have spent on you. The guilt has been eating away at my soul.”

“What guilt?” he asked incredulously.

“Last night when you told me to get off you? I crossed a boundary that I shouldn’t have. You seemed upset and I thought I had hurt you and all I’ve wanted to do is make things right and apologize. I’ve spent all this time . . .” My throat closed in, preventing me from speaking. I tried to swallow the large lump that had formed. I would not cry in front of him.

“You think you crossed a boundary by sitting on me? I’d all but asked you to do just that many times. I don’t need an apology for doing what we both wanted.”

I barely registered what he’d said and kept going. “I didn’t choose to behave that way. I didn’t know what calling on the goddess’s power would do to me. But this? You made this decision.”

He had chosen to betray me.

“That’s why you turned down my advances,” I said. “You knew you were going to do this. And you dressed it up by saying that you were making the right choice. Incapacitating me and then stealing my prize was the right choice?”

“Having sex with you knowing I was going to steal from you the next day would have been wrong.”

“Now you have morals?”

He ignored my question and walked over to his horse, searching through a bag. It was then that I realized there was only one horse here.

“Where is my horse?” I demanded.

“Your nameless horse?”

I would not tell him that I’d named her because of him.

“I sent her on her way,” he said. “I can’t have you following me.”

“So you’re just going to leave me out here to die?”

“You’ll be protected by the rocks, and I pity the man or beast who would be foolish enough to disturb you.” He held up a bag. “I’m going to give you more of this powder and you will fall unconscious again. I will untie you and leave you food and water and a weapon. If you head east, it’s a two-day walk back to Sagaris. I’m sure they would love to help their newly crowned champion.”

By which point he would be long gone and I would have no hope of tracking him.

My grandmother used to say that I was like a volcano—slow to anger, but when the anger struck, I would destroy everything around me. That was happening now—he had pushed me over the edge and red-hot molten rage exploded, threatening to consume me.

I was going to give the king of thieves all my fury.

“I will hunt you down. I will find you and I will kill you for taking the diviner stone from me. It will be slow, because I want you to suffer.”

“Quiet,” he ordered, and I stopped speaking out of shock. No man had ever talked to me like that.

Even if he hadn’t betrayed me, I would have killed him for that alone.

He started scanning the area beyond the rocks. I was about to kick him when I suddenly sensed what he had.

We were not alone.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

What if the people out there could help me? I was about to call out when Zain’s hand went over my mouth.

“Dracanians,” he whispered.