Page 83 of I Summon the Sea

A light smirk teases at his lips. He lifts a hand to my face, and I’m too slow to react when he feathers his thumb over my cheek. “Admit it, you can’t resist me. You’re dying to spend some more time with me, and I don’t mean when we’re fighting for our lives.”

I stick my tongue out at him, becausereally?He’s illiterate if that’s what he’s reading on my face.

“In fact, you’d love to be in my arms. You’d love to have my hands on you. You want me to caress you, touch you in places nobody else has.”

Heat splashes over my face and neck.No.

“I can tell. The way you look at me. The way you flush so prettily when I’m near. You swoon a little every time I touch you.”

I don’t even shake my head this time, my breath caught in my throat. All I can feel is his thumb caressing my cheek, all I can see is his face.

“Come with me to tomorrow’s ball. I’ll be your escort.”

No. Absolutely not. No…

“You don’t need a voice, do you? I can read you like a book.” His smirk widens. “You can’t wait to be in my arms all night, swirling under the stars, talking and laughing, can you?”

I blink.

“It’s a deal, then. I’ll pick you up from your room, give you a token to bear on your shoulder, and dance with you all night.”

“Jai…” His name is a breath.

“Because I want it, too, and you…” He falters. A wince tightens his face. “You…”

I, what?I start when a thin trail of blood starts dripping from his nose. The black swirls on his cheekbones seem to move.Jai…

“No,” he whispers, “don’t.”

Don’t, what?

“Don’t waste my time. What a load of nonsense is this?” His voice hardens into a polished blade as he drops his hand and pulls away from me. “Now, if you’ll excuse us, little human…” He sketches a small bow, his mouth tight and tinted red with blood. “Jai has other places to be.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

“Jai has other places to be.”

Well, that was… fucking strange. What’s going on here? I certainly don’t tend to refer to myself in the third person, and so far, neither has he.

“Rae, believe me, I’m trying to control him.The other soul I carry in me.”

Could that be true? Or is it an elaborate joke? Is he pulling my leg, thinking he’s being funny?

He didn’t look amused, I think, as I finally make my way to my room. Didn’t look well, either, with that sickly pallor back in his handsome face and the blood trickling from his nose…

It’s just blood. Just a nosebleed. Many people get them. It means nothing.

And I have places to be, too.

Despite my weariness, I stay awake. Curled up in bed, I stare into the small flame of the oil lamp set on the desk until I’m sure the palace is asleep. Then I throw my covers off and get up. I have some breaking and entering to do, and a king to find and kill.

This is the final piece, the last part of the mission. If I don’t survive, that’s fine. That was always going to be the outcome, nomatter what. Besides…“Get the job done and worry about the after thereafter,maikosa,”as my mother used to say.

Gods, I miss her. And this isn’t what I need right now, this remembered pain, the ever-present pain of my family’s absence.

Dressed once more in my gray spidersilk dress and a pair of gray flats that don’t hurt my feet, gathering my long hair in a knot at the back of my head, I deem I’m as ready as I’ll ever be.

Somewhere inside the palace, a clock chimes midnight.

---