Page 170 of A Dagger of Ice and Intrigue
The vines in the table flashed right next to my hand.
I flinched back as if scalded, my yelp breaking the delicious tension we’d been building up to.
I looked at the table, horrified.
That strange light had almosttouchedme.
But my fright was nothing compared to the shock on his face.
Gone were the smile and soft eyes.
His disbelieving eyes travelled from the spot where the purple light kept flickering toward me with a reticence that didn’t feel natural on him.
And when he finally met my eyes, his sparked with terror.
Ryker had vanished, replaced with the Commander–and he looked at me like I’d betrayed him.
Chapter
Thirty-Five
ALLIE
The shocked silence didn’t even have time to land.
“Why are you looking at me like that?” I asked at the same time he said, “Why did you flinch?”
The fire crackled louder.
“You first.” Ryker jutted out his chin at me. It had gotten sharper, his movements no longer gentle, but controlled in a warrior way–efficient and imposing.
“I–”
The fuck was I going to say? The same problem as with the arch remained. I thought I was crazy for seeing lights that hunted me.
The little girl had seen it, too, though.
Maybe.
She might’ve pointed a weird twig.
“Yes?” He pressed. He left the bottle on the table, not taking his sparking eyes off me, and stepped closer.
I drew back, unsure of myself and his sudden seriousness.
“I’m…not really sure.” I gulped.
He was going to think I was mad.
He kept prowling toward me, a hunter on the quest for truth, and I retreated until my back met the stone right between two rows of coffins, and I couldn’t retreat anymore.
“You were sure before.” He placed his palms on either side of my head, towering over me. “When I asked you about the arch.”
My reply was a gulp.
“Allie.” He closed his eyes and took a deep, centering breath. But the intense energy wafting off him didn’t settle, even as his gaze settled on me again, the sparks no longer there. They’d been replaced by deep shadows, darkening the corners, and making him look like the Commander I’d feared before I’d met him. “This is serious. What did you see?”
I could have lied.
