Page 50 of In The Dark

My grin widens at the thought of him slamming into the barrier, briefly lifting my mood. I lean back against the stone banister, fully aware that he can’t take another step closer.

“Good luck with the invite. I’ll be in my room, bathing and sleeping—alone,” I pointedly add, letting the word linger between us as I tilt my head to the side, dropping my voice. “We already have a plan. Let’s meet in Alvonia in a few days. I’ll come find you. How does that sound?” My tone is light, but my patience is thinning as my exhaustion settles in.

All I want is a few hours to myself—away from him and his demands. His presence gets under my skin, and my feelings toward him confuse me, especially with how my body responds. Something I’m not sure I want at the moment.

“Isa.” His voice drops, and I catch the way his eyes narrow, dark and smoldering. I pull out the Veil coin and toss it to him, knowing that if I’m caught with one, someone is bound to ask questions. He catches it mid-air.

For a moment, his expression darkens, a flicker of frustration crossing his features as he clenches his jaw. If he weren’t cut off at the entrance, I’m certain he would’ve crossed the space in a heartbeat.

Without waiting for a response, I stride up the stairs, taking the steps two at a time. His smoldering gaze burns into my back the whole way up, but I let him stew.

I need a bath, and more importantly, I need space.

17

“Isa,I know you can hear me. It’s been a week,”Rydian says in my head.

It’s been more than a few days, and I had every intention of meeting with him, but for a reason I can’t explain, I felt the need to stay put. I didn’t want to raise suspicion for leaving the castle, and the extra space away from him hasn’t hurt.

But I’m starting to really hate the fact that I tossed him the Veil coin, losing my only way of communicating. Not because I want to talk to him, but because I can’t talk back. He’s been in my head every single day since I arrived, and with my magic still coming in, I haven’t quite figured out how to attach myself to the Veil just yet.

I can feel it. I just can’t quite grasp it.

As for my other capabilities, I’ve successfully been able to light a fire and use my elemental magic. But why is it coming in now and not before?

“Isa,”Rydian croons, exaggerating my name, and it takes everything in me not to scream.Does he ever shut up?

The constant badgering is starting to get to me and is impossible to ignore. It’s not just his words, but the way his voice hasstarted to echo in my head, overlapping my own thoughts until I can barely tell where his end and mine begin.

All week it’s been, “Ivy is headed back to Aurelia to take over for a while,”or “I know you miss me,”followed by the ever persistent,“Have you found anything yet?” over and over again.

But Ihaven’tfound anything, and that’s been annoying. Other than eavesdropping on a few guards with nothing substantial. Turns out, guards know just as much as I do, which is pretty close to nothing.

I clench my jaw, trying my best to focus on the task at hand, but his voice continues to loop back through as I take the steps in the commons two at a time.It’s like having someone constantly in your ear and you can’t mute it.

I stand outside Ezra’s door and bang on it. It’s around five in the morning, and we planned on going out to hunt today to do something. Hunting is not my favorite activity, but idle hands make me stir crazy because neither of us has had a mission since we’ve been back. At first I thought it was King Elion’s doing, allowing us to rest, but that doesn’t sound like something he’d do.

“I’ll be out in a minute!” Ezra calls out from behind the door, groggy from sleep.

I step back and lean against the stone wall behind me when a door creaks open at the end of the hall. Ren halts, eyeing me down the corridor before he takes slow, deliberate steps toward me, boots echoing off the stone.

“What are you doing?” he asks, tone sharp.

I flick my eyes to Ezra’s door, nodding toward it. “Waiting on Ezra to hunt. You?”

“Giving out orders,” he grumbles, and I spot the white envelopes in his hand with the king’s seal. So missionsarehappening. That’s when I remember that Ren is captain, which I find odd, given we’ve never had a captain before.

My eyes narrow. “Why are you captain and not one of the others?” I ask, genuinely curious.

Becausewhy notone of the others? What makes Ren so special that he was picked out of everyone here? I personally thought the king forgot about him.

“Are you questioning the king?” he says, crossing his arms. “You must have been too busy with yourself to notice me doing everything right.”

I scoff, muttering under my breath, “I wouldn’t count that as a good thing. If you’re doing everything right in the eyes of the king, then you probably play just as dirty as he does.”

Ren’s eyes narrow slightly, and then he very, very slowly shakes his head in a subtle warning, eyes flicking across the hall just as Ezra opens the door. Ezra’s hair is mostly dry other than a few damp strands at the top of his head, an indication of bathing.

“Stay out of my way,” Ren growls at me, the sudden tone switch catching me by surprise. He quickly nods to Ezra, acknowledging him as he walks past, throwing me one last glance over his shoulder before descending the stairs.