Page 103 of I Summon the Sea

What am I doing?

Clenching my jaw, I step away from him and start down the corridor.

Only for his hand to close around my arm and stop me. “I told you, I can’t let you go.”

No.I shake my head, do my best to pull away. It only serves to make him growl, and the next thing I know, he’s swinging me up in his arms. I struggle, twisting in his arms like an eel.No!

And a memory slams into me—of arms sliding under my knees and back after the first trial, lifting me off the floor. Carrying me against a wildly beating heart.

“He was the one who scooped you up and carried you inside the palace, demanding a healer, the best healer.”

The shock of the tactile memory merging with those words makes me go still, just enough for Jai to enter my room, kick the door shut, and carry me inside.

Without a word, he crosses the room and sits on my bed, his arms still tight around me. It’s a circle, a wall keeping the world out, solid, warm, smelling like him.

I feel drugged. Intoxicated. Drunk.

This is such a bad idea.

With a huge effort, I lift my head off his chest, half-heartedly trying to pull away.

Get out, I point at the door. I stab a finger into his chest, and it’s like poking steel.You, get out.

I have places to be, things to do.

Kings to kill.

He catches my wrists, nostrils flaring. “No, you’re not going. It’s too risky. Dangerous. Listen to me. You can’t risk the king’s wrath again, and you can’t catch him by surprise, Rae.”

I glare up at that handsome face.

“I heard he called for you today. Did he hurt you?”

I clench my hands into fists. Refuse to acknowledge the worry in his voice, the care in his words—because they can’t be real—and focus on the rest.

Why can’t I surprise the king?I tug on his shirt until his gaze drops to my mouth. I mouth,Why can’t I surprise him?

Jai’s lashes lower. Such ridiculously long lashes, I think randomly. Such ridiculously pretty eyes on a man who wreaks havoc against his own kind on the fae king’s orders. “The king has eyes and ears everywhere.”

You. You go and tell him stuff?

“You know I’d never tell him.”

Do I? That would require trust, which would require knowing Jai well, and Jai not being who he is, so…

“You just can’t win like this, Rae. You can’t take him out like this, don’t you realize? If…” His gaze drops to my bruised wrist, and his dark eyes widen. “What thefuck. Who did this to you?”

I shake my head, try to pull my hand back, andow. My bruised wrist throbs angrily.

His fingers slide higher so he doesn’t touch the painful ring of bruises, but doesn’t release my arm. “Did the king do this?”

It doesn’t matter. And why pretend to care? He’s the king’s friend, his adopted son.

Anger returns, and I welcome it. I need it to distance myself from this strange feeling unfurling in my chest, this warm acceptance and need that shouldn’t be there.

I pull back, and he finally lets go, but now his hands lift to cup my cheeks as I scoot back on the bed, his dark gaze searching my face. “Are you all right? Did he hurt you elsewhere?”

I shake my head but make the mistake of lifting my gaze to meet his. The worry in his eyes holds me still, a net of smoke and darkness holding me tight.

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