Page 67 of Heir of Broken Souls

Elysia crosses her arms over her chest, every feature racked with defiance. “I promise, that willnotbe happening.”

Harlow cocks her head, a familiar glint in her eyes relighting. “The mate you were assigned not appealing enough?”

Elysia can’t stop the blush from creeping across her face, making me bite my tongue. “I don’t find someone attempting to kill me attractive, no.”

“How boring,” Harlow muses.

Saving Elysia from Harlow’s retorts, I chime in, “There are eleven bedrooms on this ship. Why not take one of the lower-level rooms?”

Harlow turns. “Have you seen the rooms below deck?”

“No, but I’m sure they’re just as lovely though,” I say, thinking of the luxurious room at my back.

Harlow visibly shudders. “I wouldn’t assign thewitchesto those rooms.”

My brows flick high. “That bad?”

“Horrid.”

Elysia looks to Harlow curiously. No Fae interacts with witches if they can help it, and we’ve mentioned them numerous times this morning. I can’t imagine what’s running through her mind.

“Has Axel spoken to you yet?”

My hackles bristle immediately at the change in topic. I know how Harlow feels about Axel and how we handle the situation, although now knowing that she’s right, there’s a part of me that doesn’t want to give her that satisfaction. The gloating would never end.

I force my face into a neutral expression to avoid showing how much Axel’s evasiveness is hurting me. “No,” I answer nonchalantly.

“Have you tried talking to him?”

I sigh. “And when would I have, Harlow? In between us leaving the lands that are currently being conquered by my worst enemy, or when he’s slamming doors in my face?”

Harlow raises her hands in surrender. “I’m not the one slamming doors in your face.”

“Thank you,” I say, overly sweet.

“I will say, it’s about time we all stopped tip-toeing around him like he’s made of glass.”

“He was for a long time.”

“Because we allowed him to be.”

Anger bubbles under my skin. “Drop it, Harlow.”

“No.” She kicks off her door, getting right in my face, but it’s not as menacing as it used to be. Not with the amount of power thrumming through me, waiting at my fingertips. “Are we done with coddling him?”

“He’s sober, isn’t he?” I snap, anger and guilt fueling my words. A dangerous mix as I stare her down. “What do you want from me? To say you’re right? To allow you to have your ‘I told you so’ moment? Go ahead,” I say with a flourish of my hand.

Instead, she stuns me as she says softly, “I want things to go back to the way they were.”

My anger vanishes at the gentleness in her voice, one that I rarely hear. But I can’t sugarcoat my words anymore. “That’s never going to happen.”

“It could.”

“No, it can’t. Unless you can bring Ace back from the dead, it’snotgoing to happen.”

Harlow flinches, the armor around her heart crumbling. She takes a step back as if the exchange never happened and turns to Elysia. “Don’t take his distrust of you personally. The last girl who walked in here claiming to be someone’s mate ended up murdering his twin.”

Elysia’s eyes widen in horror, flicking to mine as if to confirm it.