For the first time since she’d hatched this crazy plan, a sliver of unease slid through Skyla. “In storage somewhere else.”
She watched as he took it all in. The couch and chairs positioned near the fireplace, the bookshelves on the far side of the room that were empty but for a few leather tomes, then past the dark windows to the other side of the room and the king-size bed with its blue comforter and mountain of pillows.
“What is this?” he asked.
Skyla’s stomach tightened with doubt. “Your room. Well, if you want it, I mean.”
When he slanted her a confused look, that unease pushed its way up her chest. She hated that she felt anything but confident. As a Siren, confidence was part of who and what she was. But ever since she’d met Orpheus, that confidence had been wavering. Because his was the first opinion that mattered. “Isadora suggested it, actually. A room of your own. She didn’t think you’d be leaving Gryphon and going back to Argolea anytime soon.”
Her voice trailed off because the whole idea suddenly sounded…lame.
“You did all this?” he asked, looking around again.
“Yes. Well, no, not all of it,” she corrected. “Nick had a couple of his guys help me move boxes and chairs and haul furniture up here.”
“You got Nick to agree to let me stay here?”
“Isadora did.”
He turned to face her, but she couldn’t read his expression. Was he impressed? Angry no one had asked him what he wanted?
He didn’t answer her unasked questions. Instead he crossed the floor, stepped past the bed, and pushed the door on the far wall open. After flipping on the light and glancing around the fancy bathroom she’d been surprised to find behind the door, he switched off the light, then came back and stared at the bed. “Why?”
“Why what?”
“Why did you do this?”
“Because you need a place to unwind.”
“No, why this?” He motioned to the whole room, accentuated by warm burgundy throw rugs and leather furnishings instead of the cold cardboard boxes that had dominated it before. “Why this room?”
Because it meant something to her. And she hoped it meant something to him as well.
A lump formed in her throat. She wasn’t sure how to answer. Not without putting her heart on the line. A heart she’d only just rediscovered in the last few days. All because of him.
He crossed back to stand in front of her. “Well?”
She hated that she wanted his approval. More than she’d wanted anyone’s approval before, even Cynurus’s. Though they were technically the same. Gods, none of this made sense, and she especially hated how that made her vulnerable. Vulnerability wasn’t something she had much experience with. “You don’t like it? I told you if you didn’t, you could find a different room downstairs. I was just trying to—”
“Why haven’t you taken it?”
Her mouth closed. She stared up into his intense gray eyes. Eyes that seemed to be looking deep into her soul. It took several seconds before she realized he wasn’t talking about the room but about the Orb.
Her gaze slid to his chest and the Orb she knew lay against his skin, hidden under the white button-down he wore. She’d seen the outline of it under his shirt after she brought help for Gryphon. Knew he’d put it on and that he’d probably already placed the earth element in its slot. And she knew right then that this was her defining moment. She could tease and seduce and imply all she wanted, but the only way she was ever going to prove her loyalty to him was to be honest.
“Because I don’t want it.”
“Zeus does.”
“Zeus is going to have to learn to live with disappointment.” When his eyes narrowed, she knew it was now or never. “I’m leaving the Sirens.”
Skepticism crossed his handsome face. “Why?”
“Two reasons. The first is because now that I’ve seen that thing and felt its power, I know no god can have it. If balance is to remain, it needs to be destroyed. I know that can’t happen before all the elements are found, but giving it to Zeus won’t do anything but cause trouble. I’m sure of it.”
“And the second?”
Right. The second. Skyla bit her lip. There was a jumping-off point, then there was a diving-off point. And right now she was either going to hit the water face-first and come up breathing, or she’d crash and burn in the bottom of an empty pit.
She pulled up her courage. “The second is that I can’t in good faith stay with an order that wants me to kill the man I love.”
There was no reaction from him, not even a muscle twitch in his jaw. And in the silence that followed, Skyla’s anxiety amped a good three notches.
“You love me,” he finally said. When she nodded, he added, “No one loves a daemon.”
Her heart pinched. “No one but me.”