Page 91 of Captive of the Stolen Empire

Chapter41

Lucien

Ipaced across the stone floor, flexing and unflexing my aching hand. Punching the wall had been instinct. Slamming my hand into it repeatedly…

Stupid, Lucien. Just stupid.

It had taken Warren’s help to pry the battered gauntlet off my hand. It would take more than that to fix the dents in the metal. The act hadn’t distracted my thoughts. If anything, it brought them closer to the surface.

Zurina and Warren had urged me to go back to the emperor’s audience chamber after he dismissed us. Confront him. Make him see reason.

That was when I’d hit the wall. Literally. If I’d gone back in there then, I might have attacked him—doomed us all.

“You didn’t tell me,” I accused Warren as I flexed my freed hand.

Warren stared up at me, blue eyes seeing too much as they always did. “You’d have just told me not to use it.”

I scowled at him. He knew me well, but with his weak heart, any outpouring of magic could spell his death. I’d tried to protect him from that as much as I could, keeping him out of battle. But if the rebels closed in, would the emperor hesitate to use his skills to protect himself? Nails bit into my palm, the joints screaming in pain. No. He wouldn’t.

The doors creaked open. I froze, muscles pulling tight under my skin.

Ilya strolled into my sitting room, countenance bright, her long hair trailing behind her like rolling hills ready to be planted. Her eyes locked on me.

“I’ll leave you. Find me later,” Warren said.

As soon as the guards closed the door behind him, I snapped into action, hurrying across the distance to Ilya. She sucked in a short breath as I grasped her bare arm in my damaged hand. Lightning zipped between us where we touched. Her stiff form melted against me as my other arm came around her, pulling her into my armored chest.

My helmet lay on the side table with the damaged article, leaving me room to trail kisses along the top of her head. “About this morning…”

Her brown eyes found mine, flickering with concern and stirring my blood. Her back stiffened under my touch, her whole form going rigid again at the quiet mention.

“I didn’t mean to leave you alone after—” The words lodged in my throat. Already I wanted to pull her back upstairs and repeat the events of the night before. “I went to order breakfast brought to my quarters for you and got called away.”

Her brows wrinkled, a small smile pulling at her lips as the tension in her body fell away. “That’s all?”

I traced her jaw, savoring the simple touch. She wasn’t mad? Upset? I expected both.

“I assumed you wouldn’t have left me alone up there on purpose.” Her cheeks pinked as she glanced away out into the falling night at the last colors of sunset painting the horizon. Ilya bit her bottom lip, eyes flitting about the room. Was she nervous?

With a sigh, I forced myself to let her go, stepping back to give her space. “If you have regrets about what happened between us—”

“No.” She whipped around, placing a palm across my chest. “No regrets. Not about that.” But she still wouldn’t quite look at me.

“Something’s bothering you though.”

“I…” She shook her head and crossed the room. Leather creaked as she sat heavily upon the sofa, her shoulders slumped.

“Is this about your friends?” Another guess. She’d been upset yesterday, and though she’d burned with her usual fire when she walked through the door, one look at me had extinguished it.

“Something like that.”

Not that at all. I took the vacant seat next to her, trying to pry through the thick walls she kept so dutifully fortified.

“Actually, I was thinking about you.” She dropped her voice. “Your birthmark.” Ilya touched my arm, grazing the armor just above where the odd mark marred my skin.

Her words cracked the dam of my thoughts, ones I’d carefully pushed aside in light of the other revelations of the day. “What about it?”

She shuffled closer. “Do you think some of the others could be like you? Hazy memories. Unsure of where you’re from. You were all taken in as orphans, right? That’s what we always heard.”

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