Page 110 of House of Roots and Ruin
His eyes met mine, dark and heavy-lidded. His pupils were wide with desire and I nearly dropped my hold of him, longing to bring his mouth back to mine and sink into the wicked ecstasy of his kisses. What would those fingers feel like if I let them sneak up another inch? And an inch after that?
But my breath caught in my throat as I noticed something strange about his eyes. Strange about the thick line rounding his irises.
They were the wrong color.
A ring of bronze circled the green.
It was impossibly subtle, but I’d spent hours studying Alex’s face, memorizing every bit of him, the fullness of his lips, the sharp, proud line of his nose. I knew his eyes better than I did my own, and these were not Alex’s eyes.
This was not Alex.
I fell to the ground in my haste to break away from him. To put a good amount of protective space between us. To get away.
The boy who was not Alex watched me hurriedly button my blouse up with an expression of interest, but not alarm.
Amusement, not fear.
He knew I knew.
And then he smiled.
“Who…who are you?”
“What do you mean, Ver?”
As he said my name, shortened into an unfamiliar diminution, so many things came together for me. I saw all the details of his face that were almost Alex, but not quite. His eyebrows were slightly thicker, the plane of his cheekbones almost imperceptibly higher.
No wonder I couldn’t make the portrait align to this boy.
“You’re not Alex.”
One corner of his mouth rose, delight coloring him. He crossed one leg over the other, sitting back in the wheelchair with a relaxed stance I’d never seen Alex manage. “Brava,” he murmured appreciatively.
“Who are you?”
“Viktor,” he said, as if a single name could explain everything. “I honestly didn’t think you’d figure it out so quickly. What gave me away?”
“Your eyes. There’s a hazel ring around them.”
He made a face,tsking as if it was of no concern. “Julien probably should have been here instead.”
“Julien?”
He nodded. “My brother. Dearest Alexander’s brother.”
I frowned. “Alex doesn’t have any brothers.”
“Then how do you explain me?”
His ears looked just like Gerard’s. “A cousin,” I faltered.
“Father has no siblings.”
“He’s not your father.”
Viktor’s smile deepened. “As often as I might wish that were true, he most unfortunately is.”
“No,” I said, shaking my head. “Alex doesn’t have a brother.”
