Page 78 of The Jasad Crown
Busy sinking into the whirlpool of my head, it took me a second to realize Arin was speaking.
“What. Happened.” The question—if one could call it that—came torn from between his teeth.
“What happened with what?” He probably wanted to know how much I had overheard or how I found him. Would he find it aggravating if I said,My magic decided to bring me here, or would he find it as terrifying as I did?
The sword plunged into the dirt beside me. So quick was the strike, it took me an entire twenty seconds to notice the hilt vibrating inches to my right.
A shiver worked down my neck. All my training, all my years with Hanim. Pointless.
If Arin and I fought—truly fought—I would not emerge the victor. He had never shown me the full range of his skill, never exerted the limits of his strength in my presence.
I probably would have tried harder to kill him if he had.
It became clear why Arin had disarmed himself when he took a step closer. “Your eyes are bloodshot and your breathing is shallow. You can track what I say, but your mind is straying.” His lips pressed together. “I have seen you like this before.”
Impossible. I would never have let him witness me at my most vulnerable, especially not in those early days. Maybe afterward, but during—
The Nizahl Heir’s gaze found me through the dim of the hall. How long had he been there?
“Have you returned?” he asked.
“I never left.” Hoarse, as though I had been screaming instead of sitting silently on the ground.
“Yes, you did.”
Right. I exhaled on a bitter chuckle. I had forgotten about my fit in the hallway after discovering one of the trials would take place in Nizahl. Arin had seen me break so many times, in so many different ways. If he wished, the Nizahl Heir could pull at a single stitch and unravel me. I had given my enemy the designs to my destruction.
“It will pass,” I replied. “It always does.” Even if it took more of me with it each time.
My shoulders tensed, prepared for him to ask what had caused it. Prepared to lie and prevaricate and launch us out of the first conversation we had had without the embers of rage lying between our feet, threatening to blaze.
I had been away too long. The singularity of Arin’s attention, his unwavering focus, discomfited me nearly as much as it had those first weeks in the tunnels.
“Why are you naked?”
I glanced down at the blanket, taken aback. Suddenly, the absurdity of the situation struck me, and I had to bite my lip to restrain my laugh. My magic had really dropped me, naked and barreling toward a veritable meltdown, into Essam Woods. Into Arin’s path.
“Did someone—” Arin paused, and my flash of humor dissolved. I could rarely recall seeing the Nizahl Heir struggle for words. He closed his eyes. When they reopened, icy shards of deadly intent pierced through me. “Are you naked of your own will, or of someone else’s?”
It took me longer than it should have to understand. Arin had taken my nakedness and mental state and pieced together a horrible conclusion. I extricated a hand from the blanket to wave it in vehement denial. “No, no! Nobody tried to force me to do anything. I am naked of my own volition.”
Relief melted the rigid contours of his face. He released a heavy breath, while I flushed at the potential double meaning of my words.
“To clarify,” I added, feeling unbelievably absurd, “I was not engaged in any activity where nakedness is expected or customary. Not that youmustbe naked to take part in those, uh, activities. In any event, I wasn’t. Taking part, I mean. In any activities.”
“But therewereactivities?” Arin asked, straight-faced.
“No, no activities! I was alone and fully intending to stay that way. I—why are you smiling?”
The corners of Arin’s mouth had curved upward. The humor in his smile, though invoked at my expense, spread through me like warm honey. I hadn’t thought I would see it again.
“You lied to your father,” I blurted.
Why enjoy a moment when I was just so good at ruining them?
As much as I hated the resurgence of caution wiping Arin’s features clean, I would have hated it more if my magic swept me back without an opportunity to understand what I had witnessed between the Heir and the Supreme.
“What did the Mufsid say to you?” I pressed. “They were executed the day after Galim’s Bend, so if you saw him the night before his execution, then you must have visited him right after I saw you. Did you ask him about the fortress?”
