Page 96 of The Hunted

They were close.

Not close enough, her soul screamed. Not where you should be. Not where he’s touching you or seeing you. Not where you can see and touch him. It’s not enough.

She would break.

And maybe at the end of it all, that was what Eryx had wanted. Maybe it hadn’t been a punishment at all, but rather, an inevitable end. Because if she were feeling like this, then he had to be experiencing the same. That was the bond, and it was only fair. The thrall didn’t affect only one half of the pair—it ruined them both.

Forever.

After all, if he had learned other things about her that she hadn’t been the one to tell him—like her proper place in the sea—then how much else had he learned and not yet said?

Did he know what she had done?

What it meant?

Arelle spun on her bare feet, the flowy fabric of the white silk gown blowing wide around her legs. The heavy wooden door that was always latched surprisingly opened when she attempted to pull on it. The guard still waited outside in the hallway, but in that moment, he didn’t seem bothered that she was leaving her rooms.

“Yes?” he asked.

She let the truth slip out. “I want Eryx.”

The man nodded once. “He said you would know where to find him.”

How? she wanted to ask. How, when she’d never been in this house?

And yet, she said nothing.

He wasn’t wrong.

All she had to do was listen, like every mate searching for her other half, she only had to wait for him to call.

She finally found him in a room, surrounded by shelves filled with books. A long table separated them, and he stood at the far end. In front of large glass doors that led out to the steps she’d been watching for days. Where the water lapped and the waves raged. Rain slapped the glass and the wind howled.

The storms raged on.

He had to know she stood there, yet he didn’t turn around. If he did, he would see her crazed and broken and willing all of this to be different.

Wishing she had done this differently.

“I have a theory,” he said.

His words were quiet.

They still made an impact.

“About what?” she found herself asking.

“Well, about us.”

TWENTY-ONE

Eryx

“A THEORY?”

Her question came out like a whisper, and yet it still traveled all the way to his spot as though she had shouted it. Eryx had wondered how long she was going to last … when he couldn’t seem to drag the answers he was looking for out of her any other way, he’d defaulted to the last option he’d had. Changing everything.

Here she was.