Page 133 of The Shadows Between Us
“You’ve misled me, of course, when it came to Hektor and the baron. But I don’t think you’ve ever spoken an outright lie to me. Do you think I’d be able to tell if you were? Let’s find out. Now tell me what you used this for.”
I look down at my fingers to find them shaking.
“Look at me!” he says.
I do. Any hesitation on my part would only seem as though I’m trying to come up with a lie. So the truth starts to spill out of me.
“I—” I cough and force my face to remain calm. “I went to that ball with the intention of catching your eye,” I start.
“I don’t need the whole story. What I need is for you to tell me who the poison was for and why.” He considers the vial. “It’s unopened, and it does you little good to kill me before we are wed. Were you working with Vasco? Did he put his plan into action too soon without you? Or were you working for him? Distracting me so that I would touch you and make myself vulnerable to him?”
“No! I was not working for or with Vasco in any manner. I had nothing to do with what happened at the ball.”
“Then what did you intend it for, Alessandra!”
A single tear slides down my cheek. “You. I intended it for you.”
The cruel man before me disappears for the briefest of moments. Kallias’s face falls, hurt softening his features. Then the villain is back.
“Why?”
“I had a plan. There were three simple steps. I was going to woo you. I was going to marry you. And then—”
“And thenwhat?”
“And then I was going to kill you and take your kingdom for myself.”
A bitter smile stretches across his lips. “That does sound like you.”
“But, Kallias, I threw out that plan weeks ago. I no longer had any desire to kill you because I—”
“What? Youwhat, Alessandra?”
Now the tears are coming quickly. I can’t look at him as I say it. I don’twantto say it, but my life is on the line. “I fell in love with you.”
He laughs. The sound is not kind, and the empty space where my heart once was burns with pain. “All this time, I worried about old threats, when I should have also been looking for new ones. I suppose a king is never permitted friends or lovers. Not when every person in the world wants something from me.”
“It wasn’t like that. Not anymore. I swear it. I never lied to you. I never pretended anything with you. I didn’thaveto. Don’t you see?”
“I don’t want to hear any more.”
“Kallias, please.”
His neck snaps in my direction. “I told you. You are no longer allowed to address me in that way, Lady Stathos.”
The hurt is so deep, but so is the anger.
And that night with Hektor flashes into my mind.
My knife is in my boot, of course. I could draw it much faster than Kallias could his rapier. Especially when he’s mostly turned away from me.
And though my anger is rich and raw, I have no desire to reach down for my knife.
I could never,neverwish Kallias any harm.
“You will leave,” he says. “I don’t care where you go, so long as I never have to see you again. If you come back here—if I ever have to look upon your face again, I’ll kill you myself.”
I rub at the tears as they fall. Try to gather my thoughts, but the ache in my chest is all consuming.
