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“What if I’m dying?” “Why would you be dying?” “Perhaps an insect crawled into my throat. I’m choking, frothing at the mouth. Will you watch from the threshold?” “Yes,” Wes said. “Try not to swallow any insects.”
“His will is strong. It always is, in the self-righteous,” I said to the empty room. The gray walls echoed my hollow words. “But the will of the damned is even stronger.”
She had the temperament of a deranged goose. Every interaction he’d shared with her had thoroughly convinced him he was not dealing with a stable woman.
“You think your mind is a blank slate, where you can build your own networks of information from scratch, through pure logic and reason. You ignore that each child enters a completely unique world, founded on different truths. We build our reality on the foundation our world sets for us. You entered a world where magic is corrosive and Jasadis are inherently evil. I entered one where turning a shoe into a dove made my mother laugh. Have you considered, in that infinite mind of yours, that the truly brilliant people are the ones who understand the realities we build were already built for us?”
He stood, and I caged my breath. If someone’s sword ever brought this man to his knees, they would never bring him low. His power did not come from magic or status, but from an unassailable sense of self.
“You dangle yourself over a rocky riverbed, beat down my guards, wedge your arm into a Hound’s mouth. Yet you blush at a bare chest.”
“The way most men love is so boring. It is frequent and fickle and altogether unextraordinary. Arin would love to obsession. To madness. But do you want to know the real reason he would never allow himself to love another?” Vaida stepped close, her floral scent tickling my nose. “Arin is consumed by what he loves. If asked, he would get on his knees and let it kill him. He withholds his heart out of self-preservation.”
I matched his smile. His death would be gentle.
“He is Nizahl’s Commander. I should burn with hatred every second spent in his presence.” “Do not tell me what you should feel,” Sefa said. Brown eyes met mine without a trace of judgment. “Tell me what is true.”
But worst of all, I could not admit to Sefa that the Nizahl Heir made me feel most like myself—and myself was not someone I had the luxury of learning.
“Do try not to die. I would hate to listen to Mehti yammer on a third time.” I fluttered my lashes. “Why, Diya. Is this your formal offer of friendship?” She considered the distance between herself and the ground. “Die, then.” She leapt.
shoulders and tossed it into my lap. “Give them nothing to see but the look in your eyes,”
“What appeal can reason have in the face of your tears?”
“No, I don’t wish I was alone with my maps and my talwith. I am where I want to be.”
Instead, I launched myself at the Nizahl Heir. He caught me with a surprised grunt, arms winding around my waist. He was too tall, leaving my feet dangling in the air. I wrapped my arms around his shoulders. Arin exhaled, warm against my neck, and held me fast.
name. I had made a vow against intoxication, but I would recant immediately for the chance to savor the decadence of him.
