Chapter 27

Chapter Twenty-Seven

I woke to my curtains being yanked open and the fading evening sun sending bursts of orange and red across my eyelids. Shooting up, I squinted into the light enough to see a smirking Tallon leaning against the wall by the window. "Rise and shine, Odyssa."

"What are you doing here?" I groused, rubbing at my eyes. After his disappearing act before, I was hardly in a welcoming mood. "And how did you get in my room?"

"You believe a locked door can stop me?"

"How comforting." I sighed, tugging the blanket into my lap, trying to cover my nightgown-clad body from his intense stare. "Why are you here?"

"It is time for you to get ready, is it not?" He shrugged and sat down in the plush chair by the window, spreading his hands. "I wanted to keep you company."

"Why?" I knew I likely wouldn't get an answer, but I couldn't stop from asking anyways. Tallon confused me, and until I was able to decipher his motives, his secrets, I would always be somewhat wary of him. Now, he seemed genuine and open, lighter than before, but I knew all too well how quickly he could pull his mask on and turn into a blank and cold statue.

"Why do you not dress with the others?" He raised his eyebrow and waved vaguely towards the wardrobe against the wall. "I thought there was a room for you all to get ready in."

"There is. Some of the others and I don't quite…" I paused, searching for the right word. As much as it annoyed me how Elena and Maricara treated me, I did not want any consequences. I turned my back to him, pulling the evening's clothing from the wardrobe and grimacing at the peach-colored fabric staring back at me. "We don't quite agree on certain topics. I felt it was best to get ready here."

He hummed. "What is it you disagree on?"

I shot a look over my shoulder. "Why did you leave before we finished our conversation last night?"

"You had a visitor."

"You could have waited."

"Have you always been so stubborn?" An exasperated huff sounded and I didn't need to turn around to know that he was shaking his head at me.

"No, usually I'm quite cooperative," I said, folding the fabric into my arms and turning back to face him. "Present company must bring out the worst in me."

His wry smile almost hid the amusement in his eyes. Almost.

I waved my hand at him. "Have you always been this arrogant?"

"Yes." The answer came quickly, no hesitation in his tone.

The storm in my stomach tumbled, a war waging between the soft comfort the exchange brought and the knowledge that Tallon was still lying to me about everything that mattered.

The small smile that had crept onto his lips slowly disappeared the longer he looked at me, and he let out a sigh, nodding his head at the bundle in my hands. "You should get ready, little wolf."

I waited, but he did not move. If I'd been thinking clearly, I would have moved into the bathroom, shut the door firmly between us, and changed there. But this Tallon, the one that wore no mask and whose eyes burned against my skin and lit a fire in my belly, he made me want to tease and torment. I laid the evening's clothing out across the bed deliberately. The veil, the dress, the gloves. "Well? Are you going to give me privacy to change, or do you plan on remaining there?"

It was foolish, I knew, to entertain even a hint of whatever this was burning between us, but for reasons I didn't want to explore, I couldn't resist. Zaharya had warned me about him, and I had seen it with my own eyes: Tallon was dangerous, and I should be avoiding him at all costs, but here I was, taunting him.

He raised an eyebrow and stood, keeping our gazes locked as he turned the chair around to face the wall and sat back down in it, his back now to me. "There. Is that better?"

"Much."

We drifted into silence, the only sound that of fabric rustling as I pulled off my nightgown. My eyes stayed on his back while I slipped the dress over my head. He was already dressed for the evening, his shirt stretched across his broad shoulders. I hadn't noticed before, but the hair at the back of his neck swirled into a slight point. I wanted to run my fingers through it.

"Ask me."

I startled and finished pulling the dress down, freeing my hair from the back. "Ask you what?"

"You're staring at me," he said, still facing away from me. "I assumed you had a question."

I had many questions, but I couldn't bring myself to voice any of them. Irritation sprang up suddenly, prickling hot against my cheeks. Tallon's games were never ending, and despite my best efforts to rise to his challenges, he was sweeping me away and he knew it. Yet I continued to fall for the bait. I snatched the gloves from the bed. "You can turn around now."

He stood and faced me in one smooth motion before I even had finished speaking, his eyes roving over my body before narrowing in on the black lace gloves I was pulling on. "Why do you wear those?"

Surprise halted my movements. Of all the things for him to ask, that certainly had not been one I'd expected. I searched his face for any signs this was a test or another part of his games, but found only genuine curiosity and a touch of anger. Slowly, I continued pulling on the glove. "I was told my marks would offend Prince Eadric and his guests and was instructed to keep them covered during the parties. Between the gloves and my hair and the veils, and the darkness in the ballroom, they blend in well enough to be missed."

He hummed but didn't reply immediately, watching carefully as I pulled on the other glove and picked up the veil. He nodded at the gauzy fabric and crossed his arms over his chest, pulling the maroon silk even tighter across his shoulders. "I despise those things."

I could not read his expression now. A careful answer was best. "I imagine anyone would."

Another hum, but he stayed still, arms crossed and feet apart as he stared at me. "Ask what you wanted to ask, Odyssa. You do not have to bite your tongue around me. Not when we are alone."

I only had a moment to decide if I wanted to fall deep into the well of anger or stay afloat atop the sea of incredulity. Choosing the latter, I let out a soft huff and raised an eyebrow. "That does not mean you will answer the question, Tallon."

The smile that stole across his face was bright and wide, and I knew I'd passed some sort of test. "Of course not, but you can ask it regardless."

Tugging my bottom lip between my teeth, I considered what I wanted to ask. I had a plethora, beginning and ending with the treatment and my brothers, but I hesitated as I considered it. The evasion, the secrets, the lies… they were wearing on me. If I asked again for the third time, would he tell me? I wanted an answer, for once. The truth. And I wanted the conversation to continue, and any questions about our bargain would likely end it.

As with Sylviana, who was stretched out across the bed still, watching us, when Tallon was not being an arrogant prick—and perhaps even when he was—his presence made me feel less lonely.

"How do you know the prince? You seem quite close." It was something I'd wanted to ask, and perhaps the answer, if he even deigned to give one, would be helpful in getting the treatment myself once I'd figured out a way to get back to the prince's quarters without Tallon's knowledge.

He tilted his head. "That is not what you originally wanted to ask me, but I'll allow it." He walked slowly to the bed, settling down on the corner of it. "I admit, I am not here at Prince Eadric's behest. I was acquainted more with his father and we had business together occasionally. I was staying in the castle to complete a job for him when he died. After he passed, Prince Eadric invited me to remain in the castle." An indifferent shrug. "I had no other plans and nothing more intriguing to attend to, so I stayed."

It took a moment for the words to settle in my mind. And then the well of anger I'd avoided earlier swallowed me whole. "‘Nothing more intriguing?' You say it as if this plague is nothing more than dinnertime entertainment. As if families aren't being torn apart and the stench of death hasn't settled into the land's very bones."

His eyes flashed. "I do not know these people, Odyssa. Nor do I owe them my grief or reverence for dying. Death is a part of life, and you must learn to embrace its inevitability before your own grief tears you apart."

I felt sick to my stomach. "You are so callous. Your humanity?—"

He barked out a laugh. "Humanity? Humanity has given me nothing. It has given you nothing . There was no humanity in Veressia long before this plague descended, and there will be no humanity after it is gone. I have waited, begged for humanity to show its face in this city, and yet here we are."

There was truth in his words, but they stung like a slap to the face all the same. "Humanity is what you give to others, not what is given to you. Your indifference will damn you, and I cannot wait to see it."

Boots echoed in the room, and then he was in front of me. "How do you know I am not already damned, little wolf? How do you know you are not already damned?"

"Do you even care that my brother might be dead?" I asked, my voice cracking with unshed tears born of anger more than grief. It made the anger grow, frustrated with myself and how my emotions had been so twisted since coming to the castle. "Did you even take the letter to them?"

"Why do you care more for their lives than your own?" His voice was softer, despite the tension still in his jaw and forehead.

"Did you take the letter?" My words were spat through gritted teeth. My life was forfeit the moment I stepped through the gilded iron gates, but I could still appease my mother's last wish.

Like a curtain snapping shut, Tallon's mask was on once more. Not the skull mask that sat beside the chair he'd occupied, but the one that dulled his eyes and yanked any emotion from him. "I told you I would. I did."

"Well?"

He shook his head, stepping away and moving back to the chair where he pulled his coat on and fastened the mask around his head, settling it into place across his face. "Anything I tell you now, you will not believe. We'll discuss this later."

The bells tolled, signaling I was already late to the kitchens. Narrowing my eyes at him, I clutched the veil in my hands and ran from the room, letting the door slam into the wall behind me as I left. He could lock it behind him when he left. There was nothing polite I could say to him now.