Page 18 of This Shattered Star

“He wanted to try again.”

His huff of annoyance blew strands of hair at the back of my head. “You look upon his court with distain. And yet you speak just like them. Evade the truth just as masterfully as they do.”

I whirled on him, doors forgotten. He barely stopped in time to avoid crashing into me. But made no move to take a step back. “Donotpretend to know even one single thing about me.”

The emotion that flashed across his face was too quick for me to discern. But in that small moment, it affected him so wholly that he shuddered.

Again, that mask slid back in place. Tucking that emotion away as if it had never existed.

“I just want the truth.”

“And you have it,” I snapped. “Call itclose. Call it anything you want, if it’ll satisfy your burning desire to know what is far from your business. There is no name for what exists between Maverick and I. Not truly. It is simply athingthat balances between a line of ice and fire. What you saw was a display of what happens when it simply rests in the middle. But do not think that because of what you saw, I’ve never been burned. Never been frozen out.”

Although my answer was honest, he didn’t seem to like it. His expression darkened. “Has he ever hurt you?”

The question jarred me. Forced a surprised breath through my lungs, bringing our chests flush against one another. “Not physically.”

“But he’s hurt you in other ways,” he pressed.

I was on the move again. I tried another handle, if only to avoid the ire in his stare.

Maverick used his bare hands to tear wounds into those who wronged him. Those same hands snapped the necks of those who posed threats to his kingdom. Though they had always been soft with me.

But how many times had he cradled my heart to his chest, only to splatter it across a wall?

How many times had he unspooled the fine threads holding me together?

With him, there was comfort. A comradery that I could find nowhere else.

An understanding.

Although we sat on two opposite sides of a peculiar scale of power, of hatred and admiration, we were both different. Both scrutinized and held at arms’ length by the rest of the kingdom.

But with him, there was also uncertainty. Affliction.

Many answers danced across my tongue. But only one made it past my lips, barely more than a whisper, as I finally pulled on a door that gave. It raced up the stairs that beckoned us forward, and came crashing back down until it fell, broken and bruised, at my feet.

“It doesn’t matter.”

CHAPTER FIVE

We trudged upwards, the stairs twisting and turning and seemingly endless.

“I don’t believe I’ve seen a structure like this attached to the castle,” I remarked. “Either it’s been freshly conjured, or we are very far belowground.”

Cracked and splintered with age, every surface emitted dust that stuck to our boots with each step we took. Specks of it floated in the air like gnats, impossible to swat away.

“If it’s the second option, we might have to move a little faster,” Kodhan replied tightly.

“No taste for enclosed spaces?” I avoided the left portion of the next few steps that were entirely decimated to rubble. Even then, I worried what remained would crumble beneath our feet. Holes as large as my skull decorated the surrounding walls. “Or does the prince not wish to dirty his clothes with dust?”

“I am a man of the skies.”

I paused, and peered back at him from over my shoulder. “It is far more dangerous up there than it is down here.”

His harsh stare bore into mine. “If that is what you believe, then you do not know the true meaning of danger.”

With a shake of my head, I continued my ascent. “You make it sound as though there is anything worthy of interest other than flesh-eating dragons and indolent gods.”