“You do not have a choice,” he snaps.
My chest deflates with a puff. “Why?”
His eyelashes fan his cheeks with a ragged breath.
“Why Sitri?” He averts his eyes. “Because of Morin?”
He sends a paranoid look toward the door. “Not here,” he says eyes flashing with warning.
“Put a sound ward up.”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“It’s not a good time.”
“Why do you have to do everything she says?”
“Shut. Up,” he whispers.
“No!” I’m past the point of caring. I’m almost shouting. “I want to know why. I want to know why she has so much control over you.”
He’s on me within seconds, forcing me back to the wall as he clamps a hand over my mouth. “Not here.” He pushes the rhythm of those two words against my face.
I wrench his hand away but lower my voice as I say, “Why do I have to go?”
“You are not much of apunishmentunless I actually have to be seen with you,” he snarls.
My lips part as that word breaks over me like an icy sheet of water.Punishment. Punishment. Punishment.I snap my mouth shut, anger and shame flushing at my skin.
The daemon strikes out with my lashing emotions, a ball of lightning under my flesh. I grit my teeth, struggling to keep it contained. I push away from him and make for the door, not only because I need to move to sedate the turmoil of the daemon but because if he isn’t willing to give me answers here, then I’ll go somewhere he can.
I hear him uttera curse before the swinging door clatters behind me. He catches up with me in seconds, but we don’t speak as we navigate the dim hallways. I turn on him as soon as we’re back in his chambers. My anger has abated slightly, and I decide to take a slightly more diplomatic approach because there’s no way I’m going to anaked ritual. “Sitri, there must be something you can—“
“There’s not. Do you think I didn’t try? Believe me when I say it’s the last place I want to take you.”
I wince. Right. Because I’m apunishmentto him. A shame. How did I lose sight of that?
“Pandora,” he says, eyes softening. “There are things you don’t understand.”
“Because you don’t tell me anything! Punishment or not…I think I have earned the right to your trust!”
“Trust?”
“Yes!”
“Do youtrust me, Pandora?” he sneers.
“Yes.”
“Really?” he asks disbelievingly and I know he’s referring to my earlier freak out.
“I do trust you,” I snap. “I let you mark me. I haven’t tried to escape. I saved your life. I…I…do everything you want me to do. I deserve to know things, Sitri.”
He moves forward, and I move back until my shoulders thump against the wall, and suddenly, we’re in the same position we were in the kitchens. He settles a hand against my shoulder and then smooths it up my neck until his thumb nests against my throat. “I trust you, Pandora. I trust you completely, but…it’s better this way. I don’t want you mixed up in my… mess.”
“It’s my life too, Sitri. I’m tired of you keeping me in the dark. You keep me ignorant this way. Why do you work for her? Why do you have to do everything she says? Why is she trying to humiliate you?”
