Page 86 of When Roses Burn

“A few minutes ago.”

He glanced around the room, his nostrils flaring, before his eyes returned to me. I wondered if he’d scented Gizzi, but he hadn’t detected him yet, and he didn’t say anything.

“Are you hungry?” he asked.

My rumbling stomach answered before I could. “Yes.”

“Then get dressed and join me in the dining room.”

I bristled over his commanding tone but wasn’t in the mood to argue. I wanted to learn more about my sudden ability to communicate with Gizzi, but I was also starving.

“How long has it been since my Needing started?” I asked.

“Three days.”

“Three days,” I whispered.

I’d lost three days of my life to my Needing and sleeping afterward, but it was over! I didn’t have to dread it anymore; I didn’t have to wonder what would happen to me and didn’t have to fear I’d fail in my determination to prove I wasn’t like the other casters.

I’d come out of it as… well, I didn’t know what I’d come out of it as. I hadn’t chosen either day or night and wasn’t returning to Nightshade or going to Luminaire, as every other caster before me had.

I wouldn’t enter a temple to bind myself to either the sun or moon god. I was free from the traditions that ruled all casters for as far back as our history existed.

What would become of me? Would I have any powers?

But I already knew the answer to that. If not a power, I at least had a whole new ability to communicate with animals… or maybe just Gizzi. Maybe, for some strange reason, I’d formed a bond with him that allowed me to hear his thoughts.

Or maybe you’ve gone batshit crazy, and your sanity is flying around a belfry somewhere.

That was a distinct possibility too.

“Are you going to join me for breakfast?” Knox inquired.

“What? Oh… yeah… I’ll… I’ll be right down.”

When he folded his arms over his chest, the large muscles in his biceps bulged beneath the thin material of his black shirt. The long sleeves covered his tattoo, but I’d memorized the pattern of the thorns and that perfect black rose.

I looked away as I tried not to recall his tender touch while he rubbed my sore muscles. The memory of his breath tickling my neck sent a shiver down my spine. His mouth had been so close to mine; if either of us had moved a few centimeters, we would have kissed.

He would have devoured me if I let him… or if he allowed himself to give in to his lust for a woman he despised. And I didn’t kid myself into thinking his desire meant anything about his feelings for me; he’d said he’d never claim me as his mate again, but that primitive instinct remained within him.

“I’ll see you soon then,” he said.

“Am I allowed to wander free?” I blurted before he left the room.

He stopped in his retreat to the door. “Not outside of the castle grounds.”

Excitement lurched through me, and I took an involuntary step toward him. “What will become of me now? Am I still a prisoner? Am I to be tortured until you get answers I don’t have, or will you set me free?”

The clenching of his jaw made his scar more visible. When he pushed the door shut, I gulped at the idea of being alone with him in this room with the bed so close. I tried to ignore the electrical impulses racing through my body as my skin tingled with awareness of his nearness.

“And where would you go?” he asked.

“I don’t know,” I admitted. “Even if I wanted to go back, which I don’t, I wouldn’t be welcome in Nightshade. If, for some reason, my mother took me back, it wouldn’t be to set me free, but it doesn’t matter because I’m never going back there. I don’t think they’ll take me into Luminaire either, not unless I bind myself to Sol, the sun god, and I have no intention of doing that.”

“Why not?”

“I told you that I won’t be like any of my kind. Plus, I’m not binding myself to anyone. For the first time, I’m free, and I will stay that way… or at least I’m sort of free considering I’m still your prisoner. It’s still better here than in Nightshade.”