A twitch forms beneath his left eye as he speaks in a strangled voice. “Was she in Bakva?”
I nod.
“For how long?”
“I don’t know. It was the first time I had ever seen her.”
He climbs out of the bath with a swift, graceful motion. Water cascades off his skin, slowly running down the length of his hard, muscular body. I trace those droplets with my eyes, wondering what it would be like to taste them, to tastehim.
Heat scours my cheeks as I pick up the oil and cloth and scrub my arms. He grabs a drying cloth from the shelf and wraps it around his waist as I keep scrubbing.
“There will be more questions tonight.” With that, he leaves the bathhouse.
I blow out a quick breath and lower the cloth to the side of the pool.
Why hasn’t Jasce locked me away?
I blow out another breath, not understanding him. He could use me. Well, he could use me once I have my rune, and I learn how to cast silver magic.
He could have us magic bound like The Widow Maker and Ellery. I asked Zerah their names the other day, and she happily supplied them.
My insides tighten into knots as I think of those gold threads weaved around Ellery’s arm—how it binds her to him—how she can never escape him, even if she wanted to.
A scowl presses against my mouth as I hurry from the bath. I hate waiting for Jasce’s next move. I especially hate caring what he thinks.
Does he hate me now that he knows I’m Annora?
He probably does.
ChapterTwenty-Nine
That mattress dipsas Jasce settles in the bed next to me and asks his first question. “Do you have a lover?”
I open and close my mouth, baffled by his choice. Of all the things he could—and probably should—ask me, why this?
“What?”
“You heard me. Do you have a lover back in Bakva?”
I smile, even though I know I probably shouldn’t.
Jasce’s brow lifts.
“Obviously, you weren’t listening when I told you I am scarred, Jasce.”
He shrugs.
The mattress dips beneath me as I rotate to lie flat. “Men don’t want scarred women. So, no, I do not have a lover.”
Jasce doesn’t answer.
I allow the silence to immerse us for a while before I ask him a question. “When you were reading about soul linking, did it say if I can return tome?”
“There wasn’t any information about that.”
Of course. Why would there be?
Disappointment spears my heart, fragmenting the part of me that desperately needs my sisters. As Lyra, I can never visit them. Never embrace them. Never tell them how much I love them again.
