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She thought of last night. Of the rough way he’d taken her, out on the balcony and then on this bed. She was getting warm and excited just thinking about it.
She had reveled in the wildness because she understood it. She understoodhim. Something as soft and dangerous as love felt like a loss of control. Like a threat. He’d needed to fight that threat.
And the fight had been glorious. They had left marks on each other, yes, but they had climbed to new heights of pleasure. And maybe he had not come to the same conclusion she had—that loving him was simply an inescapable fact of life, no matter how vulnerable it made her—but it had burned away some of the fear. For her.
Growing up as she had, accepting things became necessary, whether they were comfortable or not. If she denied simple truths, she would end up in danger or worse. So she simply had to accept that she’d fallen in love with him.
If it hurt, if it ended, that would be terrible, yes, but life was oftentimes terrible, and she would simply move through the terrible as she’d done so many times before.
For whatever reason, Lysias did not have that skill. He was stuck in the tragedy of his past. Maybe... She hoped so much that dealing with all of this revenge would make him more open to the idea, the possibility.
But if it didn’t, she would survive. She was certain she would be able to survive. Had to be.
Lysias would as well, survivor that he was, but she wanted to give him more than survival. Which would require being careful with him, with her feelings.
How would he behave this evening?
Would he pretend nothing had happened? Try to be cruel to her now? Maybe they would repeat the intensity of last night. Or maybe...maybe he would send her away.
The first trickle of fear slithered around her heart. She could handle it all—she could pretend with the best of them, and she could weather his cruelty. She reveled in his demands, but she could not be sent away. Sheneededto be by his side. Especially as he took on the king.
The king who clearly thought Alexandracouldbe his long-lost sister. She didn’t know how she felt about that. In preparation for this time on Kalyva, it had only been abouther. That she could play the role that had been designed forher. She hadn’t thought abouthim. About Diamandis.
Now she’d come face-to-face with him, so she had no choice but to regard him as a human being. Even though she rather detested that person, it was cruel what they were doing. To make him believe his sister was alive and here.
She blew out a frustrated breath and crawled out of bed. Naked, she padded over to her wardrobe. She considered dressing as Al, sneaking about the palace as a boy, but when faced with her closet, she reached for a colorful sun dress instead.
She might be forced to return to Al yet. Why not enjoy Alexandra while she could?
So she dressed, she curled her hair and took time on her makeup. She studied herself, as it seemed she was incapable of passing a mirror without looking for the similarities between her and the king that would make anyone consider the possibility they were related.
Did they have similar ears? Was their chin pointed in the same way?
She shook her head and looked away. She never found answers, and it was a pointless endeavor anyway, as she was not his sister.
When she stepped out of the rooms, the guard was waiting for her in the hall as always. She smiled pleasantly at him, even though she was tired of being followed and led about. “Oh, would the king like me to breakfast with him again?” she asked, making sure to sound sugary sweet. “Or are you just today’s chosen jailor?”
“I will take you to the dining room, miss,” he said. Not answering her questions at all.
She let the guard guide her to breakfast, but she’d been watching them. And taking note of the different areas in the palace that were guarded and not. The dining room was empty, save a place set for her, so she sat down and ate another delicious, filling breakfast.
All the while, she watched the guard by the door out of the corner of her eye. When he was busy flirting with one of the kitchen staff, Alexandra slid silently out of the room through the hallway that led around the kitchen and into another wing of the palace.
She stood in the hallway listening for guards or people but heard nothing except an oppressive kind of silence. A velvet rope hung at the end of the staircase at the end of the hall. Like they were in some sort of museum, and this section was not allowed visitors.
Naturally, she couldn’t resist. She stepped over the rope, then took the stairs. The carpet was so plush she didn’t even need to try to soften her footfalls.
Something whispered through her, over her skin as she took each stair. A kind of foreboding, and yet a curiosity so deep she couldn’t resist.
She let those odd whispers guide her up the ornate staircase, pausing to gaze out the large windows that lined the walls along the way. She took in all that sea that surrounded so much of the palace. No matter how it made her feel, it was a truly beautiful place.
The staircase spiraled up and around until she was at the top and greeted with another long, grand hallway. There was a huge painting at the end of it. Alexandra moved for it. A cover hung from the bottom edge, like someone had recently pulled it off.
When she approached, she stared up at the portrait of a couple in grand royal garb, down to crowns and scepters. They were both smiling. The man looked so much like Diamandis she almost thought itwashim, but the woman...
In the woman’s face, she found a startling resemblance. Not identical. In fact, she might not have noticed at all if she hadn’t spent the past few days studying her own face, comparing it to Diamandis’s. But this woman’s cheeks moved into her nose in the same delicate fashion Al had always tried to hide when living as a boy. The sweep of this woman’s hair revealed ears and a dainty jawline that just...felt familiar.
And her eyes, even just in the painting, radiated a warmth that made Alexandra struggle to breathe.
