Chapter Fifty-Six
Cadence
Ryker’s anger was tangible, thickening the air as it coiled around us like smoke. A tremor ran through my body, and I prayed he wouldn’t notice.
He stepped forward, crowding me. His jaw flexed, and his eyes were like twin storms, churning with hatred and condemnation.
“You’re going to tell me exactly what you’ve been up to, Cadence. Right fucking now.”
I didn’t flinch, and that small victory burned through my fear.
“My only goal was to get free of you,” I said, my voice steady. “Every move I made was to keep you distracted. I needed you scrambling, desperate, so you wouldn’t notice when Callum and I slipped away.”
“And you thought aligning yourself with the fucking Crimson Enclave was the best way to achieve that?”
“No. Not them.”
He stepped even closer, almost nose-to-nose. “No more games, Cadence.”
“I’m telling the truth,” I said, pressing my palm to his chest in an effort to create space between us, but Ryker didn’t move.
“Then who?”
I couldn’t reveal Henry’s involvement in my schemes. He was a victim of circumstance who only wanted to protect his people. He didn’t deserve Ryker’s wrath.
But I had to offer him something.
“I have been working with some of the villages who have been displaced by the Wraith Borne attacks,” I said.
“Names, Cadence.”
“I will not give you their names, Ryker. They are only trying to survive in a kingdom that has turned its back on them, leaving them to fend for themselves.”
Ryker snarled, but he didn’t press me on it.
“I knew from the council meetings that rebels had already been attacking the food stores, and that you were looking to uncover the traitor feeding them their information.”
Ryker’s gaze narrowed, his mind working to put all the pieces together. “You used that knowledge to set a trap, another attack to send me running in circles.”
“Not a trap. A diversion.”
Ryker’s hand darted out, collaring my throat. His face twisted into a cruel snarl, all pretense of civility stripped away.
“You endangered an entire fucking kingdom of people by undermining my plans, Cadence, and you stand here, hiding behind a clever play of words.”
The fury in his tone pinned me in place, daring me to contradict him. Guilt surged through me, images of Melania and Malesh, Eamon and Riordan flickering in my mind. I knew the danger, yet I’d embraced it.
“You left me no choice.” My protest sounded weak, even to my ears.
A dark, hollow laugh slipped from Ryker’s lips. His shadows rushed forward, his control hanging by a thread.
He bared his teeth at me. “You think you’re clever, don’t you, Temptress?” His fingers tightened around my throat, a reminder of who held the power.
I dug my nails into his wrist for no other reason than to prove to myself I wasn’t afraid of him, despite the way my body trembled.
“Let go,” I said, hating the tremor in my voice.
He cocked his head, eyes narrowed. “You’ve spent months undermining me, and now you stand there as if you’re the injured party.”
I glared at him, refusing to look away. “Everything I did was in response to you, Ryker. Maybe if you hadn’t been such a tyrant, I wouldn’t have needed to go behind your back.”
His grip slackened, just enough for me to suck in air.
“And there it is.” His breath was hot against my cheek. “You can’t stand it, can you?” Ryker’s mouth brushed mine, the challenge in his words threading through every word. “It kills you that we’re bound, that you crave me. That fate chained you to the monster in the shadows.”
His hand pressed harder, thumb grazing my pulse, and I could feel the lethal potential in his touch.
But I didn’t back down.
“Fate made a mistake,” I said, a bitter laugh scraping my throat. “Maybe the gods enjoy watching us suffer.”
His lips grazed the shell of my ear, a threat disguised as a caress. “This is what it always comes down to, Temptress. You running. Me chasing. You pretending you aren’t mine. Fighting what you are, what we are, like it’s a toxin in your veins.”
His grip tightened again, just for the satisfaction of feeling me struggle. My pulse thudded against his palm, and he pushed me back until my spine hit the stone wall. The cold bit into my skin, but Ryker’s heat smothered everything else.
“You can’t escape this, Temptress. You never could.” His hand slid down my throat as he made his way to the valley between my breasts. “You think you’re strong? Well, you aren’t. All you are is a scared little girl too afraid to accept what it means to be mine.”
A red haze descended over my vision as rage flooded my body. “Scared? You believe I’m scared of you?”
I shoved his chest again, and this time he took a step back. “It isn’t fear that makes me want to run. It’s hatred. I loathe you for what you are, for what you’ve done to me. I would burn this palace down just to watch you suffocate on the smoke.”
My chest was heaving, and my hands trembled at my sides.
“I hate you so much, I can’t stand the fucking sight of you.”
Ryker reclaimed the step he had surrendered, his body leaning into mine. I could feel the hard outline of his erection pressing against my center, and gods help me, I whimpered.
His eyes glittered, wolfish and wild. “Liar.”
I bared my teeth. “You want the truth? Well, here it is: I will never be yours, not completely.”
Ryker’s palm returned to my throat, squeezing just enough to make it difficult to breathe.
“Go ahead. Squeeze harder. See if I care.” My nails raked his skin, drawing blood.
“You’d rather die than admit you belong to me?” His lips twisted into a cruel smile. “After everything we’ve been through?”
The truth burned in my veins, too potent to contain.
“You slaughtered my people. You struck down anyone who got in your path. The only thing I feel for you is abhorrence.”
“And you care so much about the Wraith Borne?” He arched a brow in challenge.
“I cared about my parents!”
Angry tears filled my eyes, but I refused to let them fall.
“I care about the fact that you murdered my mother! And I don’t just mean by leading the assault against the rebels. You killed her with your own two hands.”
“She tried to kill my brother!”
His words echoed around us, sharp and final.
Ryker didn’t look away. Didn’t so much as blink.
He had known. All this time, he knew.
A sick, hollow sound rattled in my chest. I wanted to lunge at him. Tear into him. Or maybe collapse into a heap on the stone floor.
Instead, I just stood there, spine rigid. My hands fisted at my sides.
He watched me, heat and hate swirling together in those bottomless eyes. Shadows eddied beneath his skin.
“She tried to kill my brother!”
What did that even mean?
Neither of us moved as the truth hung heavy between us.
The silence pressed in, thick and cruel.
Then Ryker’s mouth crashed against mine, bruising and brutal and desperate.
Fuck him.
Fuck this bond.
But I couldn’t stop myself. I kissed him back.