Chapter 22

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

Ellery

The question sent a little bolt of sadness through me. Before I left him because of his father and to keep my damaging secrets, the clear answer to that would have been yes. He’d told me so many things he’d never told others.

Now, the answer to that question was probably not. We worked together, robbed the king, and planned to free the realm from its oppressive tyranny, but we weren’t what we used to be.

We never would be again.

Ryker might not have told me about this. He also might not have known until recently, as most amsirah were finding out about it tonight.

But a dark fae? Would the duke really marry someone who wasn’t entirely amsirah?

The man considered me a whore because he’d found me in bed with his son. While I didn’t blame him for not being ecstatic about that, he was such an elitist prick I couldn’t see him being with anyone who wasn’t a full-blooded, wealthy amsirah.

And love couldn’t explain his actions. There was no way that man had fallen in love. He required a heart for that, and the duke sorely lacked one.

He’d beaten and tormented his son for years. He was still determined to break Ryker down to destroy him and bend him to his will. Anyone who could do that to their child was incapable of love.

I had planned to avoid the duke and Ryker, but I couldn’t deny my curiosity was piqued by the woman who somehow managed to capture the duke’s heart, or at least his ring. I didn’t think capturing a heart that didn’t exist was possible, but I could have been wrong.

Slipping back into the crowd, I mingled with the few who didn’t openly shun me and danced with a couple of the men until the musicians went on break. The dance floor emptied enough to reveal the duke and the beautiful woman at his side.

With her arm draped through his, she leaned against the duke’s side. Her golden dress hugged her curvaceous figure and sparkled in the torchlight.

I had no idea how old she was, but a worldly air surrounded her. I’d considered the possibility she was incredibly na?ve, and that’s why she was with the duke, but the way she smiled coyly over her glass and had all the men closest to her locked on her body, made it clear she was far from na?ve.

She knew how to play the game, and she was winning it. The duke grinned as he proudly introduced her to everyone who stopped to greet them.

Nausea churned in my stomach, and for a second, I feared the champagne would reappear, but I managed to swallow it back. I couldn’t think of anything more humiliating than vomiting all over the earl’s pristine floor.

Tearing my attention from the duke and his fiancée, I spotted Ryker standing ten feet away. The shadows partially obscured him as he surveyed the crowd with icy disdain.

I gulped as my pulse picked up. I tried to bury my reaction to him, but it was impossible when he looked so handsome in his black shirt and jacket.

The top buttons on his shirt were undone to reveal the hint of muscular skin beneath. I wasn’t close enough to see them, but over the months I’d spent with him, I’d come to learn everything about his body, and I’d traced the white scars there, just beneath his collarbone.

My fingers itched at the memory, and unwelcome yearning spread through me. It was impossible not to recall how good he felt, the security of his arms, or the power in his large body. Every part of him was chiseled perfection and largely covered in scars left by his father, the Ghoul War, and ophidians, but I loved every inch of him.

Stop it!

I scolded myself and tore my attention away from him, but as if drawn by a magnet, I couldn’t stop my eyes from returning. The silver embossing on the jacket’s wrists and collar matched his eyes.

He’d brushed his dark brown hair back to reveal the handsome angles and contours of his freshly shaven face. I couldn’t count the number of times I’d placed my palm against his cheek to draw him closer, to find his lips with mine, to savor his kiss.

I closed my eyes against the agony and loss swelling in my chest as I willed myself not to cry. I would not give in to the impulse. I would get through this.

When I opened my eyes again, I discovered his gaze locked on mine over the sea of heads. For one second, we stared at each other as my broken heart burst into a pit of loss that threatened to swallow me whole. And I craved being swallowed if it meant I wouldn’t be here anymore.

I told myself to look away, to walk away, but my feet remained riveted in place, and my eyes, those traitorous bastards, refused to look away. Then, a lazy drawl came from beside me.