Page 13 of Veil of Shadows

“Don’t be. I quite enjoy this side of you.”

“What side?”

“The side where you’re acting like yourself, feeling comfortable in who you really are and not treating me like I’m a prince.” He inched closer to me, and this time, my breathdidstop. His eyes, which were always so intensely energized, sparkled as vividly as the sea, and the aura pulsing around him grew, commanding all of my attention.

His gaze fluttered to my collar, my hair, my face. I felt stripped raw in front of him.

A flash of something grew in his eyes, the same flare I’d seen in his expression so many other times. Hunger perhaps? Or...want? But it was gone in a blink. Whatever that look meant, similar to the times before, it’d disappeared as quickly as it started.

Voice low, he asked me in a hesitant tone, “Will you trust me, Elowen? Never in any of my studies or information I’ve acquired from the scholars I consulted have I found that without a collar a lorafin’s magic is unstable. You may be surprised to find you’re the same.”

My eyebrows scrunched together as Jax’s inherent spicy pine fragrance billowed around me. Stars and galaxy, the male always smelled sogood.

“What if you’re wrong?” I whispered.

“I doubt I’m wrong. If I had any concerns that I might be, I wouldn’t try to reassure you.” He inched even closer, his aura so warm and potent it wrapped around me. “Will you trust me?”

I could only stare at his beautiful irises, a dazzling display of bright blues and navy. I’d thought I’d been a fool to trust him at all after he locked me in this room, but he was once again showing me that he was trying to do what he thought was right. Trying to free me in the only way he knew how. It wasn’t just trusting him to follow through with his promise. He was also requesting that I trust his judgment.

And I’d been wrong not to trust him before. It was ultimatelywhyI was in my current position.

“Elowen?”

A stirring began in my belly, a swirling emotion that climbed up my chest and filled my heart with a swelling pulse that made me want to trust him. Want to believe him. Want to have faith that not everyone was out to hurt me.But can I? And more importantly, should I?

I’d blindly trusted my guardian, someone I thought had cared for me, and that had turned out disastrously.

My throat bobbed in a swallow, brushing against my collar. A hum of power vibrated from it, and Jax’s attention shifted to my neck.

“Please, Elowen, please trust me.”

“I—” My words caught in my throat. “I . . . I don’t know if I can. Trusting others, for me, is . . . difficult.”

His hopeful expression evaporated, and a flash of disappointment washed over his face. But in my next blink, his expression returned to that of the prince. Closed off, resolute, and impossible to read.

Jax was gone, and Prince Adarian had returned.

A swell of pain crashed through me, but it was too late. The moment between us had broken, and there was no getting it back. But it was probably for the best. Not trusting others meant I stayed safe.

The prince straightened, and his tone turned formal when he said, “If you’re willing, I’d still like to try having your collar removed.”

“And if you’re wrong, and I become unstable?”

“I can always command Alleron to return the stifling power of that collar if needed, but I’m confident that won’t be necessary.”

I took a deep breath and looked away from him, to the little kitten. The tiny feline had fallen asleep, curled against the stone fireplace. He looked so small, so fragile.Is that how I looked when Guardian Alleron took me from my mother in the Wood?

I thought of my guardian, someone I’d trusted completely to keep his word, when I shouldn’t have. Then I thought of Jax, a male who was terrifying on some levels but was also inherently...good. He was trying so hard to do what was right by me.

Perhaps I could at least trust that, even if I couldn’t trust him completely.

I took a deep breath.

Swallowing, my throat bobbed against my collar once more, but I found myself nodding. “All right. Fine. I’ll trust you about my collar. Let’s try to lift its power.”

Jax returnedthe kitten to the stables and then came back to my chambers with my guardian in tow, except this time, Jax was once again dressed in disguise. A mask covered his face, hiding his identity from my guardian. The familiar black bandana draped over his features, concealing his nose, mouth, and jawline. Once again, only his dazzling cerulean eyes were visible.

I couldn’t help but wonder how difficult it was to always keep track of who knew his identity and who didn’t. Since I’d discovered the true male beneath the mask, Jax no longer had to hide from me, but if my guardian ever learned who he was and broke free, it could spell catastrophe.

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