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“Do you even care about me at all or only yourself? From the moment I met you, it’s my wife this or my wife that and then you treat me like I’m the dirt on your shoe.”

His hands dropped to his sides and the fear and worry etched around his eyes turned harsh, lethal. “I don’t really care about you. You’re only a means for me to get what I want.”

“The feeling is mutual.” But a sharp sting in her chest, like an old wound acting up again. As if the goddess deep inside wouldn’t stand for that, Layala shoved him hard in the chest. “Except, I’m the reason you’re alive. You should be worshiping the ground I walk on, you bastard.”

“You’re the reason I’m mortal and trapped in this godsforsaken realm in the first place!”

Layala shoved him again, and he allowed it. She didn’t know where this sudden burst of confidence came from, but she let her fury fly. “Oh, I’m sure you had absolutely nothing to do with it. You’re just Mister Innocent. Poor, poor, Hel, a saint among heathens.” Layala laughed. “What a joke that is. You’re the worst of us all. A demon, the lowest of all creatures.”

“Stop,” he said.

She smacked him across the face. “You hate me? The sight ofyoudisgusts me. How dare you try to make me undress! How dare you touch me with your filthy hands! I am not your plaything! And if you ever do any of that again I will find everyone you ever loved or cared about and destroy them and nothing in any of the realms will be able to stop me.” Even Layala was surprised at the surety in her own words. She grew bolder still and went to shove him again and he grabbed her wrists. There was a long stretch of silence where he held her, and she stared up at him. Was there something there? Some familiarity other than his resemblance to Thane? The red color of his eyes seemed wrong. Shouldn’t they be turquoise, like a warm ocean?

“You should know you already took everything I cared about a long time ago.” He stared down at her and his jaw flexed. A desperate desire flashed in his features, but it wasn’t her bloody neck his eyes fell upon, it was her lips, even if everything else about him said he hated her.

“And what was that?”

“You and him. You should go back to the castle. You’re bleeding and every predator in the area can smell you.”

“I am a predator.”

The corner of his mouth tugged up ever so slightly. “Go,” he prodded and dropped his hold on her.

She took one step away, then two. He didn’t move but he watched her like the hunters he spoke of. There was no warmth there, no sign they were ever mates or lovers, just coldness in the beautiful planes of that face.

Well, she wasn’t going to wait around and argue about it, so she started off toward that farm to get Midnight before she went home. To her astonishment, Hel didn’t pursue her and when she glanced back, he was gone.

* * *

Layala stoodin front of the gold-framed mirror in her room and dipped a cloth into a basin of warm water. With a squeeze and twist she wrung it out until the droplets splashed quietly. She dabbed it along the gash she’d put in her own neck. The line was angry red but crusted over and healing. Stray hair escaped her braided black hair like a halo of frizz, and all over her face and hands were little splotches of dirt from the unnamed forest mixed with splatters of black blood from pale ones. She mopped her face clean then glanced down at all the blood staining the collar of her blue shirt. She unfastened her thick bodice and dropped it, then with a sigh, she tugged her shirt over her head and tossed it to the corner.

A quiet knock sounded on her bedroom door. Ugh, who could it be? If it was Talon leaving another note she might not be able to keep herself calm. Or perhaps Pearl was back from her time off helping Reina’s son. Another knock, more urgent this time.

Layala hurried to her dresser to find clothing and something to cover her wound with. She pulled out a thin, almost sheer white scarf.No, that was suspicious, and it might not cover well enough. There must be something with a high collar. There were several tops, long sleeve and short, and as she tugged them out, she found they all had V necks or round collars. Cursing, she shoved them back in and closed the drawer. Then the door opened, and Thane stepped inside. The candles in the room gave off enough light there was no hiding her wounds now.

His bright green eyes trailed over her, standing in her bralette, pants, and dirty boots. He quickly closed the door behind himself with his brows lowered in concern. “What happened to your neck? I thought you were training with Vesstan.”

She swallowed hard not knowing what to say.

“Layala,” he urged, closing the distance between them in four long strides. His calloused thumb ran across the thin slice. “What is that from?”

She didn’t dare tell him about her confrontation with Hel or he might go after him, and she knew how that would play out. “I encountered pale ones at a farm. They killed the father—the mother and child got away.” At least, she hadn’t seen them when she went back for Midnight, but she’d been in her head so much thinking about her incident with Hel she didn’t check to see if the father was truly dead… he’d been bitten.

His face pulled down into a scowl. “You could have been killed.”

“I promised Aunt Evalyn I’d get her her list of plants.” Layala cursed under her breath remembering she only retrieved two items on the list. “I wasn’t looking for trouble.”

“But it found you, Layala. Even I wouldn’t go out to fight pale ones alone. One mistake is all it takes. You know I’ve lost friends to them. You’ve seen what they do.” He shook his head and then ran his hand down his face.

“I didn’t go to fight,” she said, softening her voice at his worry. “It was for Aunt Evalyn. I can’t risk her going out on her own if I don’t do it. I’m not afraid to go out there. I don’t want fear to rule my life.”

“And it shouldn’t have to but you’re not immortal anymore.” He shoved his hand into his hair. “I love you more than anything in all the worlds.” He took her hand and kissed it then fixated on the wound on her neck. “Every time you sneak away, and I come to find you gone, it scares the shit out of me. All the things that could happen to you flood my mind. Like this.” He lightly brushed her wound. “What if you don’t come back one day and I find your lifeless body? Do you have any idea what that would do to me?”

Tears burned her eyes. “I—I’m sorry.”

“You’re slowly killing me.” He slid his palm against her cheek and turned her face to look at him. The anguish in his voice, in his eyes, slammed into her. “You running off every night putting yourself in danger while looking for him. It’s almost more than I can bear.”

“I never meant… You know I wasn’t looking for him for any other reason than to end all this. Can’t you see that with him here?”