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Hesitantly, I set my hand in the stranger’s. Tingles danced across my palm at the point of contact, but before I could consider the oddness of my reaction, I was swept into the dance.
“I won’t touch you until you’re begging me to. And when you do, I’m going to break you down completely before I put you back together.”
“You take the side of a woman over me?” Orion hissed. “We are their guests,” Ryvin said. “If you touch her again, I will remove your head myself.”
“I did not act like a wolf,” he said. “A shifter would have ripped the arm clean from his body for touching something of theirs.”
Pressing my palm to my wound, I winced as the confusing thoughts swirled in my tangled mind. My emotions were all over the place. Every time I tried to imagine Ryvin going down, fear gripped my chest, squeezing like a vise. Maybe it was my injuries, but it was almost like I was worried about him.
“I would never let anything bad happen to you,” he said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the whole world.
What did it mean when the person I thought was my friend would have killed me and the man I swore was my enemy was the one who’d saved my life?
“We all play our part in the game of blood and salt.” He grabbed my hand and squeezed.
“Would you have taken Adrian’s place?” I asked. Vanth tensed, his expression turning stony. I took a step back, concerned that I’d pushed too far. Then he nodded once. “I would.” “Then you understand why I need to know where my sister is,” I said. He sighed through his nose, then lifted his chin toward the gardens. Fuck.
He gripped my chin roughly, lifting my face so I was looking up at him. “I am going to taste every inch of you and leave you in a shaking puddle when I’m done with you.”
“Let me make you feel good,” he said softly. His change in tone took me off guard. It was too intimate, too familiar. “Why?” “Because how else am I supposed to ruin you for other men?”
But I like the way you look at me. Like you’re trying to decide if you want to drive a sword through my chest or stick your tongue down my throat.”
“There is strength in fighting things on your own. It might not be easy to follow your own stars, but in the end, that’s how we shine the brightest,” Iris said. I smiled. “Thank you for the reminder.”
I needed him. The same way I needed the air I breathed. The same way I needed my heart to beat in my chest. He was water, and I was dying of thirst.
“Tell me, Asteri, do you regret not killing me?” he asked. I lifted my head so I could look at him. “I haven’t decided yet.”
“A reminder. The serpent can blend in and strikes when the time is right.”
