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My stomach dropped. Like I’d been dropped into cold water. Cold like that lake north of the Spine. Uneasy, like I’d been every time I thought it might be our turn for this game. This stupid, stupid game.

It wasn’t the game. It wasn’t Lyrena.

It was me.

The words physically hurt as they scraped out of my throat. “I… I don’t know.”

Silence.

I stared at my mate. His eyes still glowed, but the expression on his face had changed, become impassive. Inside my chest, I felt a sharp pain. I couldn’t tell if it was my heart or his.

A soft chuckle filled the campsite. Percival.

Quick as it started, a vine wrapped around his mouth and gagged him.Osheen.

If there were more vines or branches tightening around him as punishment, I didn’t see them. I couldn’t see anything past the burning sting in my eyes.

45

ARRAN

She stood just outside the ring of tents, staring into the darkness. Osheen was on watch, but had moved away, far enough to give us the illusion of privacy. Even though we all knew that he could hear every word if he desired.

But Osheen and I had been stationed together at many war camps over the centuries. There were many sounds—the crackling fire, the sizzle of food being prepared, groans of pain and pleasure. A good sentry knew how to filter out the unwanted noises and focus on what stood out—the unusual and the dangerous.

There was no room in my thoughts for Osheen or any of the others, anyway. All of me was for Veyka, standing there on the edge of the camp, her body tense and rigid.

“I don’t even know your mother’s name,” she breathed, tracing the pad of her thumb along the outside of the ring.

My mother’s ring.

Without even realizing, Veyka was drawn to it.

I’d thought I loved her before. But every moment, every day… there was a new facet to fall in love with.

Or to drive me to insanity.

But I’d be lying to myself if I said I didn’t love that as well.

When I glanced up again, her blue eyes were fixed on me expectantly.

“Elayne,” I said. “You weren’t paying very close attention at the Offering.”

Her lips curved into a shadow of her wicked smile. “I was far too busy imagining all of the ways I would punish you for deceiving me in the wood.”

I couldn’t resist her lips when she smiled like that. I leaned down, catching her lower lip between my teeth and nipping it with my canines before drawing back a fraction of an inch to respond.

“Ironic, for someone dubbed the Queen of Secrets.”

She flinched in my arms, but I didn’t let her pull away.

“Ask me anything,” I said.

That got her to hold still.

“No promises, just truth,” I reminded her. “Ask me any question, and I will give you the truth.”

It was a risk. Veyka had the power to reach into my soul, my heart, and crush it. But if it could melt that ice in her eyes, the confusion and uncertainty she was trying so hard to hide… I’d take the risk.