Chapter 27 #2
Khayrivven inclined his head. “While Miss Vednis and I are enjoying our dinner.” The way he said the word gave the impression of something dirty, and Anees’s chuckle confirmed Lory hadn’t been the only one hearing it that way.
But reality was very different. “I wish it was dinner,” Lory said in her mind, and Khayrivven got to his feet, pulling her along by the arm.
When they both stood, he nodded at the three prisoners once more.
“You don’t need to forgive me for what I’ve done, but please believe me that I’ve been planning how to get you out from the moment we captured you in the mountains. ”
“Save your words, Captain,” Olive snapped, leaning back against the wall and fiddling with the frayed hem of her sleeve. “I don’t like you, and I don’t trust you, and I don’t believe a word you’re saying.”
Khayrivven didn’t try to convince her again. He merely clapped Anees’s shoulder on the way from the dungeons and inclined his head at Hadrian. “You know what to do.”
Lory didn’t dare speak a word as he guided her through the dark underground tunnels leading from the pyramid, her hand tucked into his, and a flicker of fire in his free palm until they reached a hidden door.
Dropping her hand, Khayrivven opened the door with the sort of magic working on all the other locks around the pyramid, and when it slid aside, moved by a phantom hand, the cloud-covered night sky greeted them.
A humid breeze, cooler than that of a normal Dunaii evening, swept into the open tunnel, kissing Lory’s face and blowing through her skirts.
“You really have a plan?” she dared ask as they stepped over the threshold leading them to the outer edge of the wall enclosing Ashthorn’s premises. A small, hidden staircase hewn into the side of the rock curved down to the edge of the city.
Behind them, the stone door slid soundlessly back into place.
Khayrivven nodded, gazing out at the city at their feet. “I do.”
The hike down was more than Lory would have believed she could do in such an elaborate dress, but Khayrivven hiked in front of her, always a step ahead and ready to catch her should she slip—not that she’d ever slip in these boots on dry stone steps.
Skirts gathered in one hand, she followed him, frowning at the back of his head as he took a turn, guiding them away from the descending stairs and following the length of the hill instead.
To her left, the rock reached high above her, Ashthorn’s walls beyond her reach, while on the right, only a waist-high rough stone wall kept her from tumbling two hundred feet to her death. She tried not to look down.
If they continued on this path, they’d arrive somewhere below the palace walls, and knowing Khayrivven, he already had a plan for how to get in. It probably wasn’t his first time sneaking into the king’s residence either.
Every so often, he turned his head, studying her for a heartbeat, before continuing at a steady pace.
“You have been awfully quiet,” he noted as he read her frown, but not the words she’d been quarreling with inside her mind.
“If you have something worth responding to, I will.” She didn’t mean for the snap in her tone, but too much had happened over the past weeks. Too many times her heart had soared and plummeted to easily open up.
“You know I can’t speak openly inside Ashthorn’s walls.” It wasn’t an excuse, just a reminder, and Lory knew he was right. Still, being left in the dark hurt.
“Didn’t seem that way tonight in the dungeons.
We could have met down there before—to talk and plan, and—” No, not that.
Not to lose themselves in each other, because Lory was very well aware how close to losing herself she was when it came to this man.
She didn’t need to give him any more power over her.
“You also know that Lenya is tracking my every move when I’m there.” This time, it sounded very much like an excuse.
“What about your dreams? You have shared secrets there before. You could easily do it again.” The bitterness didn’t vanish from her tone.
He had nothing to say to that, so Lory trotted behind him, careful not to step on her skirts—or to burn a hole in the back of his head with her gaze. Fire flickered in her veins, unbidden.
“We’re off Ashthorn’s premises now.” No need to point that out.
Khayrivven knew better than her where they were free to talk, and talking was exactly what they were doing right now.
“Or are you afraid you might say something you’ll regret?
Are you afraid you’ll share a secret that will finally damn you? ”
Khayrivven whirled around so fast, Lory nearly bumped into the wall, his eyes full of contained fire. His breathing was ragged and fast, and his fingers curled at his sides as if he had trouble keeping them there.
“Anything I say to you could damn me, Elory Vednis. You have no idea of the words I’ve been fighting to hold in since that night in my rooms.” His eyes flashed a dangerous shade of gray, a storm about to break loose.
“No idea of the universe I’ve been forbidding to expand between us.
” He blinked away the fire, but when he opened his eyes, the light flared brighter, threatening to consume her, and inside Lory’s chest, a light tug followed by a sharp pain reminded her that he didn’t love her.
“I wish…” he broke off, pinching the bridge of his nose between two fingers as if that would help him think.
“I wish I could lay bare my soul to you and damn the consequences, but I can’t.
” Desperation laced his words, the emotion so strong, Lory could sense it creeping into her chest and taking stock of the chambers of her heart.
“Why?” Her question was swept up by the wind carrying on its wings the sweet scent of rain, but he heard her anyway, and her heart splintered at the expression on his face as he held out his hand.
She took it, wrapping her fingers around his. Like a soothing balm, that simple touch brought back life to her, and in Khayrivven’s eyes, the wildfire died down, no longer needing to rage.
“Because I can’t mess with destiny, and you of all people should have the freedom to decide for yourself what you want in your life.”
Lory didn’t understand what he meant by the first part, but the second…
“It’s a shame you don’t love me,” she whispered in her mind.
But he heard her; like, for the most part of this day, he heard her. And when the fire flared once more in his eyes, it wasn’t that of devastation. It was that of a world he might have glimpsed that she didn’t yet know about.