“It does mark a certain turning point for the both of us,” he said quietly, breaking into her thoughts. “It’ll be our first official public appearance together. I’m sure the masses will eat that up.”
“How are the plans coming?” she asked, unable to look him in the eye when she did. She felt him though, staring at her. “To stop the binding?” she elaborated. “Personally, I’m hoping since the last time we spoke, you’ve come up with something better than killing me.”
The corner of his mouth twitched, but instead of responding, he motioned toward her side. “How is the bruise?”
“All better,” she said between clenched teeth. “As if you really care. Ruckus took me back to the pool this morning—way to be a creepy Peeping Tom, by the way—and it was gone within an hour. Gotta admit: That’s one thing I’d miss being on Earth. No magic healing water there.”
“I’ve been told the healing effects of the Alter Pool are ten times more effective. I’ve got to admit that’s one thing I’d like about being the leader of the Vakar.”
“Joint leader,” she reminded him, and the corner of his mouth twitched again.
“Of course.” He shifted then, turning so that his towering body faced her. The wind picked up, blowing strands of his almost platinum blond hair around his face, and he absently smoothed them back with a large palm.
“What are you doing here, Trystan?” she asked then with a sigh. She didn’t want to keep doing this. As far as she was concerned, she had tonight to get through and then hopefully the Basileus’s estimation would come true and they’d find Olena by the day after.
“Can’t your betrothed come and see you?” he replied. “Especially when you speak to him so informally. I’m not sure when we reached casual greetings with each other, but this isn’t your first slip.”
Shit, he was right. She’d dropped his title, having never needed to address someone of his station, or any station for that matter, before.
Turning her head away to hide the blanching of her already pale complexion, she tried to appear calm. The Olena he remembered from five years ago was afraid of him, sure, but now he was used to the version she’d been portraying since her arrival. In order to keep up appearances, her best option would be finding a happy medium between the two.
That was easier said than done, considering her massive pride and inability to cower.
“I’m not the only one,” she said, latching on to the only memory she had of him doing so. “Back in the hallway, before we were brought to safety, you called me by my name alone.”
“So I did,” he confessed, not seeming the least bit annoyed she’d remembered. “That had more to do with your relation to who you were with than your relation to me, however.”
She didn’t understand, and he must have seen that, because he continued.
“It is important as your betrothed that I exude a certain closeness and”—he paused, definitely smirking this time—“possessiveness toward you. You being with the Ander, a man who spends more time with you than anyone else, this became even more imperative.” He took a step closer, suddenly crowding her space. “He needs to understand that you belong to someone else.”
It was getting hard to breathe, and she realized she most definitely should have taken the opportunity to go inside when she’d had the chance. Conversations with Trystan never went well, and if she hadn’t been too distracted by her worry for her family and trepidation for tonight, she might have been able to put her pride aside and go. Sometimes flight was the smartest option, no matter whom it was you were running from.
Let him have the upper hand this once, so long as she got away to live another day.
She moved back from the railing, sucking in a breath when he took a deliberate step after her. She wasn’t proud of it, but she froze. How had she missed that familiar glimmer in his icy blue-and-crimson eyes? The one that distinctly placed him in predator mode.
“Until a better option comes along, right?” she said, forcing the words past her lips, thankful when her voice didn’t shake nearly as much as she’d feared. “We both want out of this arrangement, Zane. Why don’t we come up with something together? A way where neither of us has to worry about more assassination attempts.”
“Have you tried assassinating me then, Lissa?” he said, drawling out her title pointedly, making it clear he knew what she was doing. “I doubt it.” He took another step, forcing her to retreat one herself. “If you had, I’d be aware of it. Something tells me you’re smarter than I initially believed, though. More capable. Sounds like you’ve been racking that pretty little brain of yours for a way out. So, let’s hear it. Come up with anything feasible?”
She gulped, then slid her right foot farther back, attempting a slow withdrawal from his hovering presence.
It’d be great if she had something to offer him, a solution, but she’d been so busy trying to keep her head afloat with this pretend Lissa act, she hadn’t really been thinking about how to get Olena out of her arranged marriage. She’d sort of just assumed by then that it would no longer be her problem, and while she felt for the girl, she had to admit she didn’t like her any more than anyone else seemed to.
Olena was the reason she was here, after all, being cornered by an alien three times her size out on some stupid balcony overlooking another damn planet.
“Haven’t been thinking about it too hard then, huh?” He smirked again, shifting closer still. “What’s wrong? Other things on your mind? I feel like getting out of this would be your number one priority, same as me. What on Earth could be more important than that?”
Her heart stopped. It’d been a clear jab, but what had he meant by it? Mentioning Earth like that, using a clear Earth phrase … He couldn’t know.
“What are you trying to imply?” she found herself asking, despite knowing she shouldn’t.
“You’re hiding something.” He lifted a finger, pressing it against her lips when she went to speak. “It doesn’t matter if you tell me.”
She slapped his hand away. “Then why bring it up at all?”
“To see your reaction.” He grinned, herding her backward more quickly than before. “To get confirmation. Now I know I’m right. There is something. That’s what I’m seeing in your eyes, what I’ve been seeing ever since you got back. You try to hide the differences.” He clucked his tongue. “Oh, you try so hard. But I see through you, Lissa. Something’s changed.”
“That’s ridiculous,” she said, but even she had to admit there was little conviction in her tone. It was getting harder to think, with his body less than an inch from hers. She could even smell him, a strange clean scent, almost like freshly cut cucumbers and basil. How wrong, that he should smell like that, instead of something dangerous and masculine.