She struts forward with unwavering confidence, chin held high.
But I stand very still, my skin blazing and heart on fire. Because her words ... what she said ...
They were a lie.
For someone responsible for an entire island at risk of being lost forever, I obsess far too much about a single phrase, spoken in a voice clearly meant to be infuriating.
But shelied. About finding me repulsive.
Does that mean she finds me ... attractive?
Or does she simply not find me as absolutely wretched as she has previously claimed?
I run my hand down my face. I am losing my fucking mind. I shouldn’t care. Dozens of women have approached me since the start of the Centennial, andtheydid not tell me I lookeven worse up close. Not that I gave them the chance, before turning down their advances.
So why do I care about a Wildling who is so damned maddening?
I’ve spent the entire day in meetings. I should go to bed.
I’m so deep in my mind as I make my way up to my room that I don’t even sense Azul in the quiet castle corridor until he stops me. I blink, straightening. This is one of the back halls, the ancient ones with ill-fitting stones that let in too much cold at night. People rarely use them ... which is why I do, when I can’t sleep. When I need quiet. For Azul to have found me here, at this hour ... he must have been seeking me out.
I bow my head slightly in greeting. Azul’s stare is long and piercing. He looks from my red eyes to my neck, where the blue has started to show past my shirt.
“So. You really are dying.”
He’s known me long enough to know I don’t lie. Especially about anything that impacts the safety of the island. I nod, and he curses.Looks to the floor. He knows what this means as much as I do—this is our last chance at breaking the curses. And our final chance to save the island. Eventually he says, “Well, then. I have a plan.”
“Plan?”
He nods. “To end the curses once and for all.”
For a moment relief fills me, relief that someoneelsehas a plan and that we will have a hope at ending all this death.
Then he says, “I will sacrifice myself.”
Disappointment and anger hit me at once, sharper than they usually would.
I look around, squinting through the darkness, at both ends of the hall. I don’t see anyone ... but I also don’t trust my senses this late at night, when I didn’t even hear Azul coming. I motion toward a door, and he follows me through, into a long room. I run my hand down the back of my neck, willing myself to be patient, when all I want to do is go to a stretch of barren land and set it ablaze. When all I want to do is be able to actuallysleep, without all the stress and regret and piercing green eyes that keep me awake.
“That isn’t a plan,” I finally say through my teeth, trying to remain calm.
“It is,” he insists.
Not a viable one. “Your plan is madness. You will be sentencing thousands to death.”
“A realm has to die, Oro,” Azul says.
I hate how true it is.
“You—”
There’s a noise outside the door. A heel slipping against stone.
I wish I didn’t know precisely whose heel it was. I wish I didn’t recognize the slight gasp that followed. But I did, in an instant. She was eavesdropping. How much did she hear? Meddling Wildling. Will she leave me alone?
With a curl of wind, I slam the doors closed.
Azul either didn’t hear the noise in the hall—or he doesn’t care. He keeps going, without missing a beat. “Tell me you haven’t thought about it,” he presses.
