Page 134 of The Shadows Between Us
“Leave, dammit! Before I change my mind!” He stomps toward me, and I think he might physically remove me from the room if I don’t find my feet.
So I flee.
“Be out of the castle by nightfall!” he says to my retreating back. “I don’t care if you have to leave your things behind.”
That’s the last thing I hear. Out in the hallway, I see Hestia and Rhoda, waiting. They’ve brought my other friends, Leandros, Rhouben, and Petros. What do they mean to do? Plead on my behalf? They don’t know what I’ve done. Will Kallias tell them?
“Alessandra—” Rhoda begins, but I ignore her. I rush past them all, streak up the stairs, ignoring the looks the servants give me as they see my red face and tearstained cheeks.
“I’ll go after her,” I think I hear someone say distantly. “You speak with the king.” But I barely make sense of anything. Everything is a blur through the moisture at my eyes. I fumble for the key to my room three times before I get the door open. The space is completely empty.
Right. I’ve been moved into his room.
The tears start afresh as I stride over to the adjoining door. And I look into the room that’s been made to fit both his things and mine. Our wardrobes are side by side. Extra pillows have been added to the bed. My vanity has been placed on a free wall, near the washroom that smells like the soaps he used this morning.
Looking at it all, at the evidence of the life I could have had, withhim, I fall to the floor in a heap of skirts, my head dropping into my hands.
How long until nightfall? I don’t know. I don’t care. Not when everything is ruined.
I don’t know how long I sit there before the softest tapping reaches me.
“Alessandra? May I come in?”
I don’t answer. I try to rub my tears off on my sleeves.
He comes in anyway.
Leandros. He looks as though he has recently bathed, his hair still damp. The smell of roses wafts over me. He must have had petals in the water.
“Oh dear,” he says when he sees me. Then he falls to the floor and gathers me to him, letting my head rest against his chest. One of his hands strokes my hair while his voice lets out soothing sounds.
I’ve already cried myself dry, though. My tears cease.
“Do you want to talk about it?” he asks.
“There isn’t anything to say. He’s sent me away. I have until nightfall to collect my things.” My voice sounds hoarse.
Leandros tightens his grip. “How could he send you away? What did you do?”
“Nothing,” I say. And it’s true. I’d been caught with the vial of poison, but I didn’t use it. I hadn’t actually done anything. I wasn’t going to do anything. Why did I ever steal it in the first place?
“Then he’s a fool.” Leandros pulls back just enough to look at me, to wipe the last undried tear from my chin. “I know you’re hurting, but you will get past this. All will be well.”
And as I sit there, staring at Leandros, I’m overcome with a sudden urge.
The urge to hurt Kallias.
He made me feel for him and then sent me away. Tossed me aside as has happened to me once before.
How dare he?
So I lean forward and kiss Leandros. He doesn’t return it. He’s rigid as a board before me, so I use my hands to scoot closer, before letting them drift around his neck. I catch his lower lip with my teeth, and that results in the most delicious noise from his throat.
Then he returns everything in kind.
He is an exceptional kisser, but he is not Kallias.
I don’t care.
