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I didn’t know what to say to her. I crossed my arms. “Then tell me your version of the story.” Or the version that she had been told because it wasn’t her story. She had been lied to and she couldn’t see it. Damn, how I wish Lavinia was here right now. Even if she couldn’t break the spell, she could at least confirm my story.
She bristled. “Why would I? You’re my enemy and—”
I leaned into the wooden beams separating our cells and stared right into her eyes. “I’m not your enemy, Raika. I’m your fucking mate!”
The door opened again and Etyx walked back in. “Don’t stop because of me. I’m just here to keep an eye on ye.”
I didn’t want to talk about that anymore, because if I did, I would break something. Instead, I wanted to know something else. “What was that all about?”
Etyx clasped his hands behind his back. “I’m not supposed to talk about it.”
“Come on, how bad can it be? We’re stuck in here and have nowhere to go.” Let them believe they could keep me locked in this shitty cell. “Tell us something juicy.”
Etyx glanced at the closed prison door, then sighed. “It’s Dalk, Sloz’s son.” He lowered his voice and said, “He’s half-human, half-goblin, and since being abandoned by his mother and having to come live with us about two years ago, he has been suffering from severe panic attacks.”
I froze. Panic attacks. I knew what to do, but I wasn’t good at it. But there was someone else who was. I looked at Raika. “She can help.”
Her eyes bugged. “What?”
17
RAIKA
Shane was drunk or joking.I had no idea how to help someone with panic attacks. “Are you crazy?” I whispered.
“My sister, Minsi, suffers from panic attacks all the time, and Raika is the only one who can calm her down,” Shane told Etyx.
The goblin turned his gaze to me. “Is that true?”
I stared at Shane. He nodded his head. Shit. I knew what he was doing. He was lying so we would be let out of these cells.
I gulped down and said, “Yes. Yes, it’s true.”
“I’ll be right back.” Etyx marched out of the prison.
Instantly, I turned to Shane. “What the hell? Why did you lie?”
I expected him to argue with me on this, but his eyes softened. “Raika, I didn’t lie. Minsi really has panic attacks and you’re her healing balm. You taught me how to deal with her, but really, you’re the only one who can calm her down.”
I huffed. “If that's true, then what? Your sister is suffering right now?”
He looked at me, no words, no gestures. Shit. He meant Minsi was really sufferingright now? I averted my gaze, my mind reeling, my feelings raw and twisted in knots.
When I looked at the pictures in Shane’s phone, the tug in my chest had intensified tenfold. It was like I could feel it, all of it, behind a thin but unbreakable wall. It was right there, and I couldn’t reach it. Those people, the feeling behind the smiles in the pictures, the way they looked at each other, that they hugged and touched.
And that little girl. Minsi. It was like … I knew her, but I didn’t. I couldn’t remember.
The agony had grown so deep, I shoved his phone back to him and ran as if I could get away from it all.
I didn’t understand what was going on; I couldn’t make sense of any of this. Shane said that if he wanted me dead as the others told me, then he would have killed me already, and I believed him. I mean, look at his size! He wasa lotstronger than me. Even with my darkfire, I bet I was no match for him in a fight.
He had said that if he wanted me dead, he wouldn’t be showing me these pictures and telling me I was his mate.
I touched the center of my chest, right between my breasts, where a crazy pull had started the moment my eyes met his. When he had pushed me to the wall, when he had touched me, the tug beat as fast as my traitor heart, and it was like I couldn’t control myself. In that moment, I had never wanted or needed anything or anyone else in my life. Despite not remembering 99 percent of my life, I knew that, just as I knew I needed air to live.
“Raika,” he whispered.
My breath caught and I closed my eyes. My name on his lips. The rough edge to his voice, the almost possessive tone. It sent a shiver up my spine. Holy shit, what was happening?
