Page 105 of Rise of the Vicious Princess

Vahn’s unfailingly courteous voice, cruel charm, and the barbs buried in his words lingered, as did the feel of his hands on her as they’d danced.

She’d stopped looking at Tal for support. Every time she did, Vahn was right there to remark on it. And the more she wanted to run to Tal, the harder it was to stay where she belonged.

Vahn had taken plenty of shots from her as well. She’d made sure of it. He was leaving in the morning knowing that she, and by extension Calera, would not be the easy conquest he’d assumed she’d be. She’d made him work for every advantage, and she’d seen his moves coming before he made them.

It was a victory, but it felt utterly hollow.

She felt utterly hollow.

And so she’d waited until the palace was silent and Tal would be sleeping, and then she’d crept out to her bluff. She needed the wind to scour the feeling of Vahn’s touch off her skin. Needed the starlight, cold and distant, to show her how to be remote and untouchable, no matter how much he tried to wound her.

Needed to believe she could survive the rest of her life with a man like him.

Charis wrapped her arms around herself and squeezed until her fingertips dug painfully into her skin. If she held on tight enough, the pieces inside her would settle. Fragments would knit themselves whole again, and the fire that burned in the corner of her heart would turn the hurt to ash.

A soft rustle whispered behind her, and she whirled, a dagger in her hand before she finished lunging for the dark silhouette of the person who’d crept up on her.

Her blade flashed in the starlight as she drove it toward the person’s throat, and then a hand whipped up, grasped her arm, twisted firmly, and spun her back to face the sea, her dagger now behind her back. She planted her foot and slid her other dagger into her hand, but then Tal’s voice said softly beside her ear, “It’s just me. Be at ease.”

His grip on her arm lightened, and she yanked herself free and turned to face him as she sheathed her daggers.

“I could have killed you!” And curse him for making her voice shake as she imagined the horror of driving her blade into his throat.

“My life isn’t the one in danger.” His tone was steady, but there was misery beneath it. “I thought we’d agreed it was too dangerous to creep out to an isolated part of the palace grounds in the dead of night while someone is trying to have you assassinated?”

He truly cared, she could hear it in his voice, and somehow that made the ache within her sharpen.

“No one knows I come here.” Her voice was as sharp as the pain in her heart.

He cleared his throat, and she sighed. “No one else knows I come here. It’s fine. I’m fine.”

“Are you?” He waited for her answer, comfortable with the silence between them as he gave her time to decide if she wanted to talk.

But how could she tell him how much it hurt when he’d been hurt today too?

“I . . . it’s just . . . I’ll be fine.” She tucked an errant curl behind her ear. “I always am.”

He made a noise in the back of his throat that sounded suspiciously like disbelief, and her brows rose. “You doubt me?”

“Never.” He looked past her at the glitter of starlight on the heaving expanse of the sea. “I was just thinking that meeting your future husband might have been . . . difficult.”

His voice was carefully neutral. She frowned.

“You don’t like him.” She didn’t make it a question, but he nodded anyway.

“I don’t like him, and I don’t trust him.”

“Why?” The instant the question left her lips, she knew this was what she needed. To hear someone else say that smooth, polite, excruciatingly proper Vahn Penbyrn wasn’t what he seemed to be. That his cruel barbs weren’t his sense of humor, but indicative of something deeply wrong within him.

Tal glanced at her and then looked away. “It’s complicated.”

“What do you mean?”

His jaw clenched. For a long moment, she thought he wasn’t going to answer, but then he said quietly, “I think there’s something predatory about him. Not just toward me, because that made sense. He saw me as a threat to his relationship with you. But I felt he was predatory toward you. However, I may not be the best judge of his character.”

“I find you to be an excellent judge of character.”

He smiled a little, though his voice was sad as he said, “In this case, I can’t see him clearly.”

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