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I like that he never apologized for what he was not sorry for. We had both enjoyed his slicing of my flesh. Even when I hadn’t, we had. It felt right that he not apologize for it. Any apology he would have offered would have been hollow and insincere, and I wanted to always imagine my Raven as the beacon of trust in the battering hurricane of obfuscation I was mired in.

I gave him a nod, and he wrapped the shawl around my shoulders, letting the soft breeze of it settle about me. Though he was right, it was but the suggestion of a whisper of weight on my body, the chill of it rapturous. It felt like an ice melt fed river in the dead of summer. All around me was the cool rushing of the water and, beyond that, nothing but sweltering heat.

“Thank you,” I purred luxuriously as I hunched into the shawl. In the dim light, I caught the hungry look in his forest eyes and the way his chest rose and fell while he watched me. “Are you going to join me?”

“Would you like me to?” he asked with a devilish tilt to his head.

“Yes.” I paused and looked him dead in the eye. “Please.”

His pupils blew wide with lust, and his fingers clenched in their black leather gloves before he gave me a stern, crisp nod and folded his enormous body down onto the stool across from me. He looked absurd, a giant mountain of a man bent and crouched over what would suffice for a little girl’s tea set table. But he seemed to find himself a comfortable spot with a few wiggles and a sip of the cold water.

I took a moment to scan my surroundings but found that, beyond the two feet of warm glow, there was nothing but blackness. Now that my eyes had adjusted to the light, I couldn’t see further than that.

The Raven’s gaze followed mine. “Would you like me to describe it to you?”

“How is it you can see into the darkness, and I can’t?” I returned my attention to him, and he shrugged easily.

“Because I am this place’s keeper. It bends to and adheres to my whims and only my whims. It reveals its secrets to me and only me.” He took a sip of his water and turned fully to stare into the darkness. “The room we are in is called the Maw. Behind me and to the left, about three feet, is the jaws of the Maw—the bars of this prison, that is. They are shaped like the jaws of a beast and reinforced with iron. The room is hewn straight from the bedrock of the castle, similar to the warrens, but we are several dozen feet below the warrens’ level. Everything is solid rock. From the ceiling, which I think is about fifty feet or so up, hangs two sets of chains. You are familiar with the dragon. That’s what you have been in. The other is the hobble meant for your ankles.” He slid wicked eyes to me. “We haven’t sampled those just yet but perhaps soon.”

My heart skipped over three hurdles and fell to my lap as he went on.

“Aside from that, there is nothing in this room you cannot already see. It has but one purpose.”

“Torture?”

He nodded and pointed to my food. “Eat.”

I picked up a slice of apple and began chewing on it, letting the flavor burst in my mouth and wash away the bitter taste of my imprisonment. “Why?” I finally worked up the nerve to ask.

He looked up over his bite from a chicken leg, his brows furrowing as he watched me toy with the apple slice. “Because you tried to kill the King, my oldest friend and my Liege lord. I am his Captain of the Royal Guard. This is my duty.”

“You know I didn’t.” I let my gaze meet his, and we watched each other cycle through a bevy of silent emotions. I was the first one to break the standoff, letting my gaze go to what looked suspiciously like a loaf of the Bandrui’s bread. I tore into it and let the warmth of it melt into my tongue. “And the rest? I doubt that’s part of your usual treatment of prisoners.”

He sat back, watching me like a hawk examining a mouse skittering across dry cornstalks. He drew in a long breath and exhaled it with a sense of calm radiating from him. “I thought that was obvious by now, Sóna.”

“That you’re a pervert? Oh, very obvious.”

“You don’t seem to mind it. And before you lie to me, little bug, know that I have twenty pairs of gloves that are soaked with your truth. All of them my most cherished trophies.” He didn’t even have the good sense to try to pretend that wouldn’t make me burn from head to toe with a heady mix of embarrassment and desire. “I meant that it should be obvious by now, how I feel about you.”

“Ah.”

I didn’t have much to say about that. I wanted to forget that there might be more to the orgasms and the lust banking in his eyes. I could come for him until there was nothing left of me but dust, and that would be easy, but thinking for a moment that there might be something more made me squirm like a hooked fish for some reason.

He leaned forward, tipping my chin up to meet his eyes once more. The vast ancient forest of them pulled me in and surrounded me with the crisp scent of cedar. “Sóna Mac Raith, before this had to happen, I was prepared to betray all my good senses to court you. You are the most beautiful woman I have ever seen in this realm or in Human. Or any other realm.”

I wanted to deny that I was beautiful. Violet had called me that once, and it sat like razors in my ears. But I was willing to let him pass on this one just once. I promised myself never again, though. Not until I recovered my true face, if that was even possible, would I accept him calling me beautiful. I was curious though as to why.

“Why?”

He smirked an enigmatic smirk and popped a slice of milúll in his mouth, making it clear he didn’t plan on illuminating me as to his reasons. I was as stubborn as he was, though, and waited for the inevitable swallow to ask him again, but he cut me off.

“Where did you get the boon beads?”

Taken aback by the question, I leaned away from him. I had sworn to keep them secret. That he even knew of them was a failure on my part. “You’re not supposed to know about those.”

“And so I do not. Nor do the rest of the guards because I swept them under His Majesty’s carpets before anyone could see them.”

“Thank you,” I whispered, genuinely thankful for his discretion.