Page 66 of War Hour

Without a word, Torryn pivots on his heel, planning to flee from the room, but he growls when he meets my shield, an extra precaution Evander isn’t aware of.

Torryn places a hand against my shield, and it buzzes under his touch. As he lowers his head, Torryn’s hair covers his face, hiding it from me. His hand drops from the shield, clenching into a fist at his side.

We stand there in silence.

“Sorry for siccing Evander on you. I didn’t like my chances of just trapping an Ardis and hoping that I’d caught you. The actual Ardis might have been offended.”

My words land, and Torryn flinches.

“You’ve been avoiding me,” I say, trying to keep the hurt, accusing tone out of my voice.

I fail.

Torryn moves his gaze to the window, his jaw set as he rolls it from side to side.I hope he is not so against my presence that he would consider the window as a viable option.

“I have not—”

“Don’t lie, Torryn. We aren’t children. You can spend as little or as much time with me as you so please, but I should at least get to know why.”

He scoffs but doesn’t budge on his vow of silence.

Irritation claws apart my plan to keep this from becoming an argument.

“You brought me here.” My voice raises without my permission. “If you’re angry at my presence, you only have yourself to blame.”

Torryn’s eyes flash to mine, ablaze with renewed frustration.

“You think I’m avoiding you because I don’t want you here?”

“Why else would you be so suddenly upset? I know my being here hasn’t made things easier between you and the other courts.”

Torryn laughs darkly. “Don’t flatter yourself. My relationship with the other courts has been hostile long before you came along.”

“Then, why?”

“Because I have no reason to acquaint myself with someone who will just be used against me.”

The retort on the tip of my tongue dies, and I swallow it down thickly.

Torryn looks deeply into my eyes, and for a moment, I see the crack in his wall. Mirrored so closely with how I grew up.

In Falland, everyone was so focused on surviving and making it through every day. You couldn’t risk worrying about someone else. You couldn’t risk trusting anyone else because, in the end, they would always look out for themselves.

Neith said Torryn had been a lord since he was fifteen years old. If that is accurate, he would have barely been a teenager, yet he was forced to stand among adults. No wonder he struggled so much, letting anyone into his inner circle.

I take one step closer to him, much like one would approach a wild animal bound to flee at the smallest movement.

“And how will I be used against you?” I whisper.

Torryn looks anywhere in the room except at me. I try to catch his eyes, but he closes them, breathing deeply through his nose. “They’ll poison you against me. It’s what they do. They’ll tell you everything you need to know and then you’ll see me as they do.”

“And how is that?”

“A monster.”

I pause, taken aback by his answer.

Is he telling me how the others see him or how he sees himself? For someone who has radiated confidence and certainty at every opportunity, it’s unsettling to hear a rare moment of self-deprecation.

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