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I shook my head. “No clue what you’re talking about.”
“Perhaps we’ll leave that for another time, then.”
He held the jacket out toward me once more and lifted a brow. Letting my stubbornness falter, I took it, burying my arms into the sleeves that were far too big. It smelled like him. Of the perfumed oils he’d used to clean my hair and the soap he’d bathed in the river with. Of something masculine laced with something softer.
A moment became a lifetime as we stared at each other. I understood the toxicity with this man. The fighting and the anger. The hatred and the violence. I understood the desire even, living in the tension he’d curated the moment he’d stepped into my palace bedroom. But I didn’t understand this moment. And I wasn’t sure I could trust myself to work it out, given my jaded history. I knew sword fights. I didn’t know people. Or genuine feelings.
“Thank you,” I whispered. “For this.”
His eyes darkened. “So civilized, Nightmare.”
“Must you ruin every moment of peace?”
He stepped back into my space, and this time I didn’t move away. “Every one.” He curled an index finger under my chin, lifting my gaze, staring at me so closely that the golden flecks in his eyes shimmered. He was obsessed with touching me, it seemed.
“Are you waving your white flag, Husband?” I managed.
“Let’s call it gray.”
I smiled. “I don’t think you understand the terms of war. People don’t walk around with various shades of flags in their pockets, depending on their mood.”
“I don’t believe you know war either, Maiden,” he whispered, long lashes kissing his cheeks as he blinked. “People don’t just walk around threatening every single person they come into contact with when they feel uncomfortable.”
“Oh, that’s not war. That’s self-preservation.”
A thousand volts of lightning could have struck the ground around us, and I wouldn’t have felt more charged than I did standing here before him, without the veils of anger. He was no more than a breath from me, staring down, and, though I didn’t realize I’d been moving, my back collided with the wall. But he’d followed effortlessly. As if it were a dance, and I was the lead.
The cool embrace of the stones pressing against my back was not enough to break the trance. Though judging by the lazy gaze, perhaps I was the one beguiling him. But just as soon as that intoxicating moment passed, he pushed off the wall and stepped away.
“You should try to sleep.”
I looked anywhere but at him, knowing I’d see the mask again. “It’s too cold to sleep down here.”
“Floor’s dry by the door. It sits on an incline to help angle the props. You could use the jacket as a blanket if you want.”
I didn’t want to. I wouldn’t fall asleep here. If I woke up in Death’s court, I couldn’t control what would happen when I came back to this reality. But I’d always preferred my own company, so I walked away.
The space was dry but still freezing, and though I’d put the jacket over my head so I could pretend I was alone, I just couldn’t let myself trust him, even with Chaos gripped tightly in my hands. I held my breath, listening for him until my teeth chattered. A few times he puffed hot air into his hands, rubbing them to keep warm.
“Do you want your jacket back?” I peeked down the dark blue tunnel, through the small mercy of lights that’d remained on.
He smoothed his hands down his thighs but shook his head. “You keep it.”
I lay my head back down, shivering, the cold so gripping I felt as if I’d bathed in an icy river and then rolled in a snowbank. My toes had long since gone numb. He paced and jumped around, and if I were sleeping, I’d probably have been woken and annoyed.
Sitting up again, I locked eyes with him. “We both know the solution here.”
“We do,” he said, blowing into his fingers again.
“Come on, then.”
He stalked up the tunnel, his figure growing until he towered over me. “You sure, Maiden?”
“I’m going to start calling you Icky again if you don’t call me Dey. I don’t want to be the Maiden, and every time you say it, I want to slice your tongue from your mouth.”
“You are so dramatic,” he said, plopping down beside me.
“Dey,” I followed.
