Page 7

Her pulse was a storm beneath my palm. After a drawn pause, Lyra lifted her chin with the touch of defiance she wore like steel armor and strode to a thick, dark rope. “I’d rather get on with it, then. How do I do this?”

I approached a Dark Watcher and pointed at a tether rope entwined around his belt. The man had a scowl so deep it hid his eyes beneath his thick brows. Sweat carved through streaks of kohl and dirt on his cheeks, and his front two teeth were made of tarnished silver.

After another brisk point, the watcher relented and tossed the rope over to my outstretched hand.

“Better for the clan to hang her from it, my prince,” he said in a grit-soaked rasp.

Heat from rage I’d kept buried prickled over my skin. Words I wanted to gesture and rant would fall on ignorance. I did nothing more than lean closer and clack my teeth, nearly biting the watcher’s nose.

He jolted back, his vibrant violet eyes growing wide in stun.

A frigid breeze wrapped my limbs. The deledan soul—the darker edge of me—fought against the unseen chains I tightened to keep my depravity bound. For this fool, it seemed every piece of me wanted to make an exception.

I took a bit of pride in the way the watcher stepped back. His gaze bounced between mine and the dark coils of a crueler soul bleeding from my skin.

A warning.

A reminder.

I was not good. I was made of darkness.

Lyra watched with a sort of bemused hesitation, a collision of disquiet and delight.

Without a word, I made quick work of encircling her waist with the rope.

“It’s…he’s touching me.”

I lifted my chin. All around Lyra’s wrists were inky shadows, almost caressing her, clinging to her. A desire burned in my chest, screaming to draw her nearer, to devour her.

I finished securing the knot with a yank on the rope, then curled my fingers around the tether and tugged her against my chest. Because all of me is consumed by you.

Lyra’s mouth tightened. I flashed a smug sort of grin and dipped my face closer. She aimed her regard to the sky, avoiding my nearness, and I could not stop the rough, breathy laugh that slipped up my throat. The stubborn, beautiful woman kept trying to avoid me and made it wholly obvious she wanted to do the opposite.

It’s true, I gestured where she could read my hands.

Lyra huffed and took a step away. “We ought to keep going.”

We would need to speak on the lies and secrets kept between us, but the way she shouldered away from me, it was clear she had no desire—perhaps no strength—to do so now.

I hurriedly secured the opposite end of the rope to my waist. Most watchers did not cross tethered to a partner, but I would not risk Lyra.

Emi had already stepped onto one of the taut ropes, carefully moving along, her hands gripping the top. Over his shoulder, Gunter flashed his white teeth behind the blue and black smudges on his face. “Wager I still best you in how swiftly we cross.”

Ass. Gunter always boasted he was faster on the ropes when we were boys, but in truth, he always required his father to aid him.

I turned to Lyra, one hand raised. Ready?

“No.” She stretched her throat to peer over the ledge once more without stepping nearer. “But I admit, I’m curious about the debt he mentioned. I cannot tell if he admires you or wishes to defeat you.”

We were once close.

“Meaning you were friends.”

I merely shrugged. When Gunter discovered his cock for the first time, I guarded his door and saved him from his mother walking in before he’d explored long enough.

Through all the pain and fear weighing on me since leaving the Jorvan fortress, I did not anticipate the laugh to take her so abruptly. A loud bark of a sound. Lyra quickly clapped a palm over her lips when more than one Dark Watcher looked our way.

It was the burning gaze twenty paces below us that brought me to pause. The Draven queen. I returned Elisabet’s raised brow with a sharp glare.