Page 62 of The Never List
19
Rylee
“I can’t believe our month is up,” Kal says from across the candlelit table. We’re at least one hundred stories up, dining privately on the rooftop of one of his buildings.
“It’s gone by fast,” I say as the server clears our plates and refills our drinks. I’m not lying or playing a part, either. Ithasgone by fast. Faster than I would’ve imagined when I first woke up in the palace four weeks ago.
In that time, I’ve learned so much about Kal and his ambitions. Where I once thought the Legend of Chaos nicknamed the Dreamer delighted in crushing people’s dreams for sport, I’ve discovered that he works diligently to make them come true. Countless evidence met me every day here in the Ruby Aire as I watched him work out of this very building.
He invests in his people—their inventions, their innovative ideas, their artistic endeavors—and the percentages he takes from their businesses are small, fair, and don’t come into effect until they’re making enough to pay themselves and their employees first. And by doing so, his people have ensured the Ruby Aire supplies the royal city with not only agricultural products but an endless stream of innovations that have made Lumathyst one of themost wealthy and prosperous kingdoms.
I admire him for it, but…
The same courtesy isn’t given to the Ashlanders, to the people who supply his city with the rubies everyone wears here as a show of support of their leader and the goddess Neph. Even if the kings claim the Ashlands as theirs, making it untouchable to the Legends, it still stings on a level I can’t express without giving myself away.
Despite that, these weeks with Kal have given me a newfound respect for him, and I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t grown attached.
It doesn’t matter that the minimum month time limit is up and that I’m free to reject them…to take my nobility increase and leave—I can’t. My secret would be revealed before I had a chance to truly make them fall for me, and being imprisoned or dying would certainly end the search for my sister.
But more than that…I don’twantto leave. I don’t want to reject them.
Especially not Kal. Not after the last month.
I want more, despite being terrified of the cost.
“Dance with me?” Kal asks after we’ve finished our drinks.
On cue, music filters all around us. Kal must have triggered the sound with a wave of power. It fills the rooftop with slow, sparkly notes that cascade one over the other. I take his hand without hesitation, sighing at the contact as he pulls me from my chair and twirls me away from the table, away from my overanalyzing thoughts.
We come together after the spin, dancing slowly near the edge of the rooftop, his entire city glittering below us.The gauzy fabric of my green dress flares above my knees with every twirl, my heels clicking on the floor.
Kal slides a hand behind me, tucking me closer as he leads with my hand in his other. Something heavy settles on my chest with the movement as memories of dancing with Jax at the Choosing fill my mind.
“You’re somewhere else,” Kal says, never missing a beat, the perceptive ass.
“I’m here,” I assure him.
He spins us again, keeping time to the music, his powerful body whirling us around the roof with ease. “You’re thinking about Jax, aren’t you?” He motions to our joined hands. “What happened between you that night?” His voice is smooth, calm, not a hint of jealousy anywhere. “You never speak of it.”
I wet my lips, trying to find the right words to describe what happened. The memory, the longing—it’s assaulted me more than once and only magnifies after each time I’ve seen him when he comes for the Legends’ weekly meetings. It doesn’t matter that he treats me like the liar I am; I still ache for the charged energy and banter we shared that night.
“We spoke,” I finally say. “He asked me to dance.”
“He asked you?” Kal’s left eyebrow rises an inch.
“Is that not normal?”
Kal shakes his head with a smile. “For Jax? No. For me?” He twirls me out from his embrace and then expertly draws me back against him. “I’m an excellent dancer.”
I laugh, the tension breaking from my chest. “I can see that.”
“What’s bothering you?”
I swallow hard. Kal and I have grown close over thepast few weeks, and not just in the sense that he knows how to make my body sing. I’d call him a friend, maybe even something more if I allowed myself to go that far, but either way, it’s more than what I thought I’d have when I started this mess.
“He barely looks at me,” I admit on a rushed breath. “Barely speaks to me.”
Kal leans his head back, eyes on the night sky. “Ah,” he says, glancing down at me as the music continues. “Jax is a complicated, complex person.”
