It was that the insects stopped their chatter and the night became heavy exactly as he took that step.
One step and the world held its breath.
I’d been thinking about the night sky and the thing it concealed too often in the last two days to miss the connection. This man wasn’t lost. As my bones rattled inside me, I knew. The deathly quiet was confirmation a predator had found me. The king’s Drae was right in front of me. The shadows appeared to cling to him because they knew him. My heart sputtered in my chest, and rushes of blood sounded in my ears. I hadn’t blinked. I couldn’t blink. I couldn’t breathe . . .
Lord Irrik.
I took a deep breath as a billow of heat pushed against me from where I stood just beyond the center square. The warmth swirled around my legs and caressed my arms, and I felt an urge to flee and stay at the same time. Play it cool, Ryn.
“Al’right. You take care now,” I said in a hoarse voice. I willed my legs to move, but they seized as the inky darkness melted away and the famed Lord Irrik glided completely out of the shadows. My heart pounded, the thundering loud in my ears. A sliver of rational thought processed the danger I was in.
“You see me,” he repeated, stalking closer. But his words were no longer a question. His statement was a confirmation of what we both knew.
Death stood three paces from me, and I couldn’t move. My mouth dried as I stared at the man who I knew turned into a terrible beast. My gaze dropped, taking him in. He wore black boots, black breeches, and a sleeveless aketon that hit mid-thigh. His clothing fit like a second skin, revealing a lean build that was nevertheless all muscle. His fists were clenched, and his muscles flexed as if ready to strike.
I was going to die. I knew it as certainly as I knew death shouldn’t look so good. Not when it was already invincible. I’d heard Lord Irrik was beautiful, that even knowing he would bring death, looking at him would almost make up for it. My mother left that part out of my bedtime stories, but the women here talked.
His dark eyes narrowed, and he asked, “What are you?”
I frowned at him. Huh?
The Drae’s face didn’t change, except for a flicker of annoyance. “Let’s try a different question then. Why are you out after curfew?”
As he spoke, he flicked a lock of dark hair away from his face, and I embarrassed myself by flinching in the most horrible way, expecting him to strike me. He smirked again.
My mouth was parched, and it took several attempts before I could voice my almost incoherent reply. “I’m sorry. I didn’t realize the time.”
It was true. This time. I’d thought I still had half an hour.
He didn’t seem to hear. My words bounced off him onto the chipped cobblestone ground. He took one step toward me, and I took three back before hitting the coarse stone wall.
“I won’t do it again,” I whispered, pressing back. “I promise.”
The scream lodged in my throat as he crossed the remaining space in a blur my eyes could hardly trace. I turned my face away, lifting an arm out of instinct. My mother would never know what happened to me. Mum. I had to keep him from her.
I straightened but jerked when I saw his face inches away. I tried to meet his eyes but focused on his chin instead. Then he leaned forward, blowing a long breath into my face.
I clamped down on a scream because I knew what that breath would do to me. Why else would he breathe in my face? A Drae could turn anyone into a puppet with a single exhale in close range.
He looked at me expectantly, and I looked back.
His square jaw was covered with a day’s worth of growth, but it did nothing to distract from his sculpted lips, the lower slightly fuller than the top. It made him appear sterner, adding to the terror his air of darkness inspired. His nose was straight, and his deep-set eyes appeared to be the same color as the inky night. I couldn’t tell if his pupils were dilated so wide I couldn’t see his irises or if his eyes were really that onyx black. His hair was liquid coal, like the color of his clothes, and confined at the base of his neck. The sleeveless aketon exposed plenty of his neck, and his skin was warm like the burnt sugar Mum made on Solstice celebrations.
I swallowed and waited for the moment I would lose all control of my mind and body. Had it already happened? Though his breath smelled sweet, I didn’t feel like I was losing control. I wondered if I would know when his power took effect. Would I care when I betrayed my people? Would I care when he finally killed me?
“Last night you left The Crane’s Nest after a meeting. Who were you with, and where can I find the others who were there?” he finally asked. His voice was different than before, like the warmth of embers on a cool morning, a beautiful rumble that calmed my frayed nerves.
“My friend. She lives just up the road.” The key to lying was to tell as much of the truth as possible and keep the important information concealed. Should I be able to reason like this? Maybe the breath thing wasn’t true, but then why had he unleashed a lungful on my face?
He chuckled, and more of his sweet breath surrounded me. It was more than his breath, I realized. He smelled good—his body or whatever—like sunbaked pine and dried sandalwood. I started to lean forward, and he sighed, shoving me back against the wall in irritation.
Get that a lot, do you?
“Who is your friend?” he snarled.
There was no way I would tell him about Dyter or Arnik. “Why? You want to visit her, too?”
He furrowed his brow, and the disinterest on his face lessened for the first time. “What?” He eyed me for a long second and took a deep breath, blowing it in my face again.
I frowned at him. “Can you stop that? It’s kind of really, really strange.”
He jerked, eyes widening, and took a step back, almost seeming to stumble as he whispered something in a different language, not taking his eyes off my quaking form.
Drak, I should’ve kept pretending, maybe I could salvage the situation. I smirked at him, feigning unfocused eyes, and said, “I can take you to meet Syla if you’d like?”
“Stop pretending.” He growled. “I can tell.”
A snicker escaped. As soon as it sounded, I slapped my trembling hands over my mouth. Mistress Moons! What was wrong with me?
The intensity with which the Drae studied me cocooned us, and the rest of the world disappeared.
“You can see me. You’re resistant to the droplets in my breath.” He studied me, his gaze intense and penetrating. In a low voice, almost to himself, he murmured, “It can’t be.”