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“I’m not holding back! I’m trying my best.” She dropped her hands, breathing hard from the exertion.

“Well, something is blocking you.”

“Such as? I don’t know the first thing about magic. If I did, I’d surely have used it against you by now,” she said with a sneer.

I didn’t believe her, but I lifted a brow, leaning closer. She took a step back, and I mirrored it until she found herself pinned against the stone wall. “What would you do to me? Kill me, Sol? Ruin this place? Get back to your family? You are the only one stopping you. You are the only one leaving yourself helpless.” I fed her the words, trying to push her into a reaction.

“Get off me.” She shoved again, but I only pressed in closer until we were chest to chest.

A smile curled over my lips. “Make me.”

Her fingers dug into my pecs, nails threatening to break skin. “I’ll scream.”

“And? Who will hear you through these stone walls? And who will care?” Not the truth, but she didn’t know that.

“You…you…monster!”

My head fell back, and I laughed, long and hard. When I regained my composure to look at her, her cheeks were pink with rage, but her body was warm. Flushed. She didn’t hate being pressed into the wall at all.

Fuck.

Our gazes met, and emotion passed between us—flashes of things I couldn’t quite pinpoint. Our bond wasn’t strong enough yet. Arousal flooded through me, though. I tried to tell myself to back off, but I couldn’t bring myself to. I wanted this. Craved it.

Her pupils dilated.

My lips curved up.

“You’re unbelievable.” Her words only sent more blood flowing beneath my belt.

“Am I? I feel you through our bond, Sol.”

“Get out of my head.” She shoved again, and this time, I let her push me back, but I only gave her enough room to breathe, and enough so she didn’t feel my hard-on.

“No. I won’t be doing that.” Smugness bled into my tone.

She made a sound I expected to accompany a stomp of her foot. “May I return to my chambers now? Since you’re my jailer.”

I stepped aside to let her pass.

SEVENTEEN

NYX

“Ifeel like an arsehole.”

“Are you being an arsehole?” Kiera asked, looking up from what she was reading, finding me standing in her open garden door.

She had a garden-level suite of rooms far out of the way on the other side of the palace. She’d never wanted to be near the courtiers or the training when she wasn’t working in the healer’s wing. With a big family of healers like hers, I found it funny she craved the quiet.

“Maybe? Yes? I don’t know.”I sighed.

She closed the book in her lap and sat back. “Sit and tell me what’s going on.”

“Must I?” I asked as I did what she told me to.

“What else did you come all the way over here for if not to talk?”

“I’d considered splitting a bottle of spirits.”