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It was unacceptable.
She was not worthy. Beautiful, brutal, brazen—yes, yes, yes. But even if what I suspected was true…
No. No one was worth this feeling in my gut.
Especially not her.
“Show me your wound,” I commanded, ignoring the roughness of my voice. I could still taste blood on my tongue.
Veyka turned away, sheathing her two daggers back in her belt. “I’m fine.”
My patience was nonexistent. I grabbed her arm, dragging her back around to face me.
“He stabbed you. You are not fine,” I growled.
“He didn’t even nick me. The knife got tangled in the folds of the gown, hit my brassiere,” she hissed, trying to yank her arm away. She glared when I didn’t release it. “It didn’t help him that by the time he tried to stick me, I’d already slid my own dagger between his ribs.”
My eyes went to the body of the elemental male on the ground, missing his head.
There was indeed a deep red stain on the left side of his chest.
One dagger on the bar top—a distraction. The other must have been in her hand. The male—Jax—had been a fool to underestimate her.
But hadn’t I done the same?
No.
I would not feel sorry for her. I would not let her wrap me up into her web of lies. She was the one in the wrong. She was sneaking out of the palace, getting into tavern brawls, putting all of Annwyn in danger for her own ends.
I didn’t look back as I strode for the door, letting my own righteous anger fuel me. “Let’s go.”
For once, Veyka did not argue.
* * *
We were nearly back to the goldstone palace when my temper got the better of me.
She’d gotten nearly everything from me—the talisman inked on my chest, to see the beast I kept so carefully hidden unless absolutely necessary. And what had she offered in return? Nothing. Not a damn thing.
I blew apart the wards protecting the palace without a second thought. She was reaching for the vines that covered the doorway back into the palace. Once she opened that door, silence must reign.
I could not allow it.
“How could you be so selfish?” I spat, every syllable laced with loathing—for her, for myself, for this lot in life neither of us had wanted. For the very crowns destined to rest upon our heads.
Veyka paused, her body hidden in shadow, no moonlight permeating the overhang of trees and vines on either side of the door.
She did not respond.
So I pushed her more.
“What happens if you die, too?” I nearly yelled, stalking closer.
She spun on me so fast I almost didn’t get my arm up in time. Even so, she used the surprise and her momentum to pin me against a tree.
But her smaller body could not hold me for long. And the tree had been a mistake. I reached for my power without thinking, the branches already curling to my will—
Until I felt the tip of her knife nick through my shirt.
