Total pages in book: 140
Estimated words: 132625 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 663(@200wpm)___ 531(@250wpm)___ 442(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 132625 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 663(@200wpm)___ 531(@250wpm)___ 442(@300wpm)
“In truth?” he asks, encouraging me to go on.
“In truth, I get lonely. I could use a friend. Someone who can speak to me openly and who makes me feel safe.” I duck my head again. “Someone like you.”
Makes you feel safe? Misha scoffs in my mind. You just met tonight. How—
“Not someone like me.” Ezra touches two fingers beneath my chin and tilts my face up to his. “Let that friend be me.”
I school my expression, biting back my smirk. I know what I’m doing. “I like that idea,” I say softly. “You have . . .” I reach up to brush an imaginary piece of lint from his shoulder and tuck a stray hair into my palm. I smile up at him. “There.”
His eyes warm. “May I call on you?” he asks. “Soon?”
“I don’t know if my sister would allow it.” I glance at the queen over my shoulder. “Sometimes it’s better to ask forgiveness with her—rather than permission.”
He frowns. “Should I arrive unannounced? Or perhaps you’d like to visit my father’s manor?”
“I would rather . . .” I shake my head and give a half-hearted laugh. “Foolish to wish for things I cannot have.”
He cocks his head to the side. “Tell me what you wish for and allow me to make it so.”
I take a breath, as if gathering my courage. “I wish we could be alone tonight.”
I feel Misha’s tension through our connection. You’re pushing it.
Ezra’s eyes widen. “Tonight?”
I wave a hand. “I know. Impossible.”
He swallows. “Nothing’s impossible. But my father—” He glances over his shoulder at the male in question. “There’s a certain way he believes things should be done, so I need to time this right.” He frowns. “That is, if you think you could get away after the ball?”
I take a few rapid breaths. “I can. I know how to sneak out.”
“We’ll have our alone time then.” His gaze drops to my mouth, his eyes dancing with happiness. “I know just the place.”
“What. Was. That?” Misha looks downright angry when he finds me in Jasalyn’s chambers.
“Change of plan,” I say, pulling up my pants again. I slipped away shortly after Ezra and I made arrangements for our rendezvous, and Hale and Natan helped me track down clothes to wear in Ezra’s form. They keep slipping off Jasalyn’s small frame. “I’m going after the stone tonight.”
Misha fists his hands at his sides. “That wasn’t what we agreed on.”
Part of me knew he wouldn’t like this, and that’s exactly why I didn’t tell him before making plans with Ezra. “Why do you care, Misha? Tonight, tomorrow? Either way, I take Ezra’s form and retrieve the stone.”
“I can have more eyes at the manor tomorrow. Eyes that can make sure nothing goes wrong. People who can step in and protect you if needed.”
“Yes, but Jas visited Hale tonight. She must’ve been bleeding because her blood was on him, and they want to use the blood to track her while it’s still fresh.”
The anger falls off his face. “He’s sure it’s hers?”
“He won’t consider anything else.”
“That doesn’t mean this is safe.”
“I’ll be fine,” I say, trying to ignore the knot in my stomach. I want to do this. For Jasalyn. For my brother. I need to do this to convince myself I’m still committed to this cause, to convince myself that Konner’s manipulations haven’t swayed my loyalty. “I don’t have much time to dream between now and the high moon hour he’ll be away, so if you would let me sleep, I’d appreciate it.”
“I’m going with you.”
I cough out a laugh. “Are you kidding me? How will you do that? Are you secretly some sort of shifter?”
“If you go in there and they catch you trying to retrieve the stone, they’ll lock it down so tight we’ll never have a chance of retrieving it. Without the stone, Jasalyn is as good as dead, and if she dies, Mordeus will take her body and destroy everything that’s worth saving in this court and then in this realm.”
I fold my arms. “You think I don’t know all that?”
“I don’t need to go in with you. I just need to be close. I need to be in your head and know that everything isn’t going to shit.”
“Can’t you do that from here?”
His jaw ticks. “As of late, not consistently, no.”
“Fine. You can come and wait outside if that’s what it takes to convince you I’m not going to screw this up.”
“Good.”
I settle onto the bed, and he doesn’t move. I wave to the door. “You can go?”
He glances at the clock and frowns. “I could help you fall asleep easily, if you’d like. It’s a gift of mine.”
My brows shoot up. “Wow. That’s a line I never expected from you, Your Majesty.”
He tries to scowl but his lips twitch. “Does your mind only visit the gutter in my presence, or does it have a full-time residence there?”