Page 7

Slowly, his emotionless mask reassembled.

He placed a hand over his chest. “You wound me.”

I shook my head and gripped the armrests of my chair until my knuckles turned white. Malachi was trying to play me. “If you invited me here to antagonize me, then I should just go. There are better ways for me to spend my time, believe it or not.”

He leaned back in his chair, finally cracking on the predator demeanor.

“Fine,” he mumbled. “I invited you here for a nice meal. Let’s eat.”

I glanced around at the feast that had been prepared for us. Meats of all kinds, fruits I had never even seen before, and an assortment of fine wines littered the table.

My mouth watered just staring at it.

“This does not make me miss Fearford,” I admitted.

Malachi huffed. “There’s nothing to miss. We’re home, and I don’t plan on leaving anytime soon.”

Home. I cringed internally at the word.

I may have considered Rewyth home. If it weren’t for what had happened at Trithen…

“This isn’t my home,” I spat. “I’m only here to spare my own life from the Paragon. As soon as I can figure out how to survive this, I’ll go back to my real home. Let’s talk about that, shall we?”

I filled my plate with the tender meat as Malachi took a long breath. “Fine. Let’s talk about it. Esther claims she knows something that will save your life, yet she reveals no further information. I’ve yet to decide if she can be trusted or not.”

“She almost killed you.”

“Yes.”

“She would have used me as the peacemaker and left me to die as soon as she got what she wanted.”

The crackling fire on the other side of the room grew louder.Was it getting hotter in here?

“Yes.”

“What about you?” I asked.

Malachi’s eyes met mine. I breathed slowly before he responded, “What about me?”

“Do you plan on killing me when you get what you want?”

He shook his head slowly, as if the thought alone was humorous to him.

“What I want?” he repeated, more to himself than to me. The fire crackled again, louder this time. “What I want is you, Jade. How do I make you see that? How do I make you understand that I would give up any of this to be with you?”

My chest tightened, as if my heart was using every single ounce of being to not believe his words, even though every other piece of me wanted to.

One of Malachi’s servants entered the room and set a fresh jar of water on the table. The small click of her shoes against the wooden floor was the only sound in the room as she walked away, closing the door behind her once more.

Of course I wanted to believe him. Of course I wanted it to be true.

But that was a fairytale.

“Well,” I coughed, changing the conversation. “We know I have magic now. I suppose I can’t keep denying that I am the peacemaker.”

“No,” he agreed. “We can’t. You used your power when you were desperate. We’ll have to work on your control. It will grow stronger every day that we ignore it.”

“And what exactly am I supposed to do with it? Just walk around and save the world?”