“Princess,” Mirquios said, clearing his throat.
Lunelle clenched her teeth. “I cannot be both your priestess and plaything, Arcas.”
Arcas exhaled slowly, agonizingly slowly, his gaze burning so far into hers she thought she might combust.
“Release them,” he rasped. “All of them.”
The guard bristled. “Your?—”
“Now,” he demanded, never breaking his hold on Lunelle’s eyes. The cells popped open, one by one, until the remaining five rebels were released, their quick steps echoing off the stairs in the spire.
“Leave us,” Arcas said, turning to Mirquios and Lura.
Mirquios shook his head, his fingers pushing into his chest.
“It’s okay,” Lunelle said quietly, nodding toward Lura. “The king will escort you back.”
“Lunelle—” Mirquios protested, but Lura’s clutched hand around his arm stopped him, shoving him through the door. The guards stepped behind them, slamming the door with a heavy thud.
Arcas turned back to Lunelle, her eyes still locked on his, unwilling to release him like the prisoners.
“Thank you,” she said, her tone flat.
“It wasn’t a favor.”
Her head tilted.
“I see your allegiances have shifted significantly since your arrival.”
Lunelle shook her head. He was still so close.
She bit. “My allegiance has always been to my people, Arcas. Perhaps that looks different than I thought a few weeks ago?—”
The prince snorted, his eyes darkening as he grinned.
“Whatever you need to tell yourself, Lunelle.”
“Why put them down? Why not work with them? I don’t understand?—”
“Exactly!” Arcas rushed her, pushing her back a few steps into the cold stone wall between cells. The jagged surfaces of the stones pulled at her dress as she gasped under him, his chest flaring in waves of fury. “Youdo notunderstand. You haven’t understood from the moment I met you—how fragile my situation is. How dangerous it is to overturn an entire court on the brink of war! You cannot just wipe the slate clean, there arerealconsequences for everyone here without clear order and rank.”
Lunelle squeezed her eyes shut, trying to think, but he drowned her in that strange chemistry once again.
She placed a hand on his chest in an effort to put something,anything,between them.
“You would not be alone, Arcas. You would have me, you would have hundreds of people across the courts ready to help, ready towork. You carry this entire court on your shoulders, but you do not have to?—”
He placed a hand on the wall beside her, moving into her once more, softer this time.
Slower.
“I would have you?” he asked, the ire in his question undeniable.
She nodded.
Arcas leaned closer, his lips brushing her ear, her jaw, sending a cold shiver over her spine. Lunelle swallowed, her chest seizing in an unholy blaze. It was the wrong kind of burn, but a burn nonetheless.
It wassomething.
