Page 70 of Claim Me

Not when I still didn’t know what to do or how to respond to the first round of the inquisition.

Even now, I’m not sure what to do. I’m finally free of the palace grounds, in a remote location where I could technically try to escape, and I’m…

Well, I’m standing in a locker room, wearing a bathing suit instead of trying to run.

I stare at myself in the mirror, conflicted about how to proceed.

Bane and Nox are waiting for me just outside the door, and they’re the only ones here. It would be fairly easy to skip out the opposite end of this locker area and try to disappear.

Except I have no idea where I would run to, and I would end up with an entire House of mercenaries chasing me.

I wish you were with me,I think at Issy.You would know what to do.

She would probably give me a spell to create a proper escape path. But she’s been silent since the patriarchs abused our mental connection.

“What’s happening to your twin? How can we help her?”

Kaspian’s words play through my mind for the thousandth time.

What would have happened if I’d told him the truth? Would he really help her?I wonder.Or was he just trying to figure out my most sacred secret?

I scowl at my reflection.

Trust goes both ways,I think.How does he expect me to trust him when he doesn’t trust me?

I might have taken our argument a bit too far, but our relationship feels entirely uneven. He’s the authority figure, the one in charge, thekingwho can dictate my fate with a few swift words.

And he expects me to tell him everything.

Part of me understands why—he’s trying to protect his House, just like he said—but another part of me is hell-bent on rebelling. I shouldn’t have to tell anyone anything because I did nothing wrong.

Klas abused me.

Heusedme.

Yet I’m being punished because Klas took my powers and used them as his own. So now I’m the one everyone doesn’t trust, purely because they know what I can do.

Which I suppose is somewhat how I feel about Kaspian—I know what he can do, so I don’t trust him either.

I narrow my eyes and shake my head. I could talk myself in circles for hours. But what I need to do is face the present.

Nox and Bane were able to free me for an afternoon swim. It’s the first time I’ve truly been outside—aside from my balcony, anyway—in over a year. I can either stand here wallowing in indecision, or I can go out there and have some fun.

I grab a towel from the shelf, slide my feet into a pair of flip-flops, and head toward the door to face my two phantoms.

Neither of them has said much about what happened earlier. Instead, they took it upon themselves to play tour guide on the forty-five-minute drive from Reykjavik to the thermal pool. Then all they did was show me around the facility and hand me a swimsuit—one that Nox apparently procured for me before we left.

I’m grateful to them for not trying to pry. But I’m certain the topic is going to come up again at some point. Maybe by then I’ll have a decision in my head on what to say.

A whistle comes from my left as I exit the locker room, the source of it Nox. He’s already in the water, but still inside the building.

I glance around, noting that there’s a bar to my right, what appears to be a towel area in front of me, and the interior entrance into the lagoon to my left—which is where Nox is waiting.

“Where’s Bane?” I ask.

“He’s at the outside bar,” Nox replies. “Since Kaspian sent everyone home for the afternoon and evening, we’re on our own, and Bane doesn’t want you to starve.”

My lips twitch. “He says his love language is food, but I think he’s just obsessed with eating.”