Page 56 of Beyond Those Gilded Walls

I would get the treatment. I would get it to Emyl. He would live.

As I was beginning to drift off, exhaustion finally catching up with me, a cold spot settled against my thigh.Sleep, Odyssa. I am here.

“Goodnight, Sylviana,” I murmured, letting my eyes close and sleep take me under. A pair of silver eyes flashed from a patch of complete darkness by the window, but I was too far over the edge into sleep to truly see them.

ChapterTwenty-Seven

Iwoke to my curtains being yanked open and the fading evening sun sending bursts of orange and red across my eyelids. Shooting up, I squinted into the light enough to see a smirking Tallon leaning against the wall by the window. “Rise and shine, Odyssa.”

“What are you doing here?” I groused, rubbing at my eyes. After his disappearing act before, I was hardly in a welcoming mood. “And how did you get in my room?”

“You believe a locked door can stop me?”

“How comforting.” I sighed, tugging the blanket into my lap, trying to cover my nightgown-clad body from his intense stare. “Why are you here?”

“It is time for you to get ready, is it not?” He shrugged and sat down in the plush chair by the window, spreading his hands. “I wanted to keep you company.”

“Why?” I knew I likely wouldn’t get an answer, but I couldn’t stop from asking anyways. Tallon confused me, and until I was able to decipher his motives, his secrets, I would always be somewhat wary of him. Now, he seemed genuine and open, lighter than before, but I knew all too well how quickly he could pull his mask on and turn into a blank and cold statue.

“Why do you not dress with the others?” He raised his eyebrow and waved vaguely towards the wardrobe against the wall. “I thought there was a room for you all to get ready in.”

“There is. Some of the others and I don’t quite…” I paused, searching for the right word. As much as it annoyed me how Elena and Maricara treated me, I did not want any consequences. I turned my back to him, pulling the evening’s clothing from the wardrobe and grimacing at the peach-colored fabric staring back at me. “We don’t quite agree on certain topics. I felt it was best to get ready here.”

He hummed. “What is it you disagree on?”

I shot a look over my shoulder. “Why did you leave before we finished our conversation last night?”

“You had a visitor.”

“You could have waited.”

“Have you always been so stubborn?” An exasperated huff sounded and I didn’t need to turn around to know that he was shaking his head at me.

“No, usually I’m quite cooperative,” I said, folding the fabric into my arms and turning back to face him. “Present company must bring out the worst in me.”

His wry smile almost hid the amusement in his eyes. Almost.

I waved my hand at him. “Have you always been this arrogant?”

“Yes.” The answer came quickly, no hesitation in his tone.

The storm in my stomach tumbled, a war waging between the soft comfort the exchange brought and the knowledge that Tallon was still lying to me about everything that mattered.

The small smile that had crept onto his lips slowly disappeared the longer he looked at me, and he let out a sigh, nodding his head at the bundle in my hands. “You should get ready, little wolf.”

I waited, but he did not move. If I’d been thinking clearly, I would have moved into the bathroom, shut the door firmly between us, and changed there. But this Tallon, the one that wore no mask and whose eyes burned against my skin and lit a fire in my belly, he made me want to tease and torment. I laid the evening’s clothing out across the bed deliberately. The veil, the dress, the gloves. “Well? Are you going to give me privacy to change, or do you plan on remaining there?”

It was foolish, I knew, to entertain even a hint of whatever this was burning between us, but for reasons I didn’t want to explore, I couldn’t resist. Zaharya had warned me about him, and I had seen it with my own eyes: Tallon was dangerous, and I should be avoiding him at all costs, but here I was, taunting him.

He raised an eyebrow and stood, keeping our gazes locked as he turned the chair around to face the wall and sat back down in it, his back now to me. “There. Is that better?”

“Much.”

We drifted into silence, the only sound that of fabric rustling as I pulled off my nightgown. My eyes stayed on his back while I slipped the dress over my head. He was already dressed for the evening, his shirt stretched across his broad shoulders. I hadn’t noticed before, but the hair at the back of his neck swirled into a slight point. I wanted to run my fingers through it.

“Ask me.”

I startled and finished pulling the dress down, freeing my hair from the back. “Ask you what?”

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