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I know it for a lie the second the words pass her lips, and my patience where she is concerned is fraying. She wanted past the boundary I put in place around the palace, and I let her have it, even though I knew why.
“You cannot escape the Shadow Realm.”
Gripping her arms hard enough to leave bruises, she swallows hard. “What makes you think I’m trying to escape?”
Taking a step closer, I circle around until I’m standing behind her. Elora’s body goes stiff. She doesn’t move away from me, but her heartbeat has quickened considerably. Though she’s trying not to show it, Elora’s afraid of me. And I like it.
I lean toward her, my lips ghosting the shell of her ear, my chest brushing against her back.
“I can smell the desperation on you. Sickly sweet and utterly useless. Even if you could discover how to get past the wards without an escort and figure out which direction to go without getting lost and manage to walk there before summer…”
Her jaw clenches, and I reach up to catch a strand of her hair before it can blow across her face, twirling it around my finger.
“Even if you can manage to do all of that, you’ll never make it. Do you know why?”
“Why?” Her voice is a hoarse whisper.
Angry, but there’s something else there too. Something that makes me take a step closer, pressing even tighter against her.
“Because it doesn’t matter where you are. I can sense you in every corner of the realm. Wherever you go, I’ll find you.”
I linger longer than I need to before taking a slow step back. Elora doesn’t move; she simply draws her arms tighter around her, eyes locked on the horizon.
“What is Meren?”
It’s not the question I expect her to ask. In truth, I was waiting for her to beg for her freedom, to plead for a bargain or a favor. She might be proud and stubborn, but no one is that prideful when their life is on the line.
“Where did you hear about Meren?”
“Railan mentioned it before he left.” She gestures toward the horizon. “Said it was that way.”
I move to stand in front of her, drawing her gaze. “I can’t imagine he told you to seek it out.”
Her green eyes are defiant. “He told me to stay away from it.”
Sighing, I pinch the bridge of my nose. There has to be a better way to safeguard the Shadow Realm than being saddled with this woman for the rest of eternity. In fact, the alternative is beginning to sound more and more attractive.
“If he told you to stay away from it, why are you walking in that direction?”
“It isn’t as if I have anything better to do.”
Sorrow flickers through her eyes for a moment, so briefly I wonder if I imagined it. Damn this woman and all the ways she plagues me.
“Fine, then.” I wrap a hand around her upper arm. “If a tour of Meren will shut you up.”
“No. Wait. I—”
Her words are swallowed up by the wind as I shift with her to the edge of Meren’s lands. She sways when I release her, dropping her hands to her knees and sucking in deep lungfuls of air.
“There are faster ways to kill me, you know. Next time just drive a blade into my heart.”
Laying my hand on the back of her neck, I push healing power into her until she’s steady enough to shrug me off and push herself upright.
“Thank you.”
“Do my ears deceive me? Thanks? I had no idea the viper could speak without biting.”
She casts her eyes toward the sky and pulls her cloak tighter around her. It’s colder here in Meren than in Irios, and the region is painted with the same dull shades of gray as the rest of the Shadow Realm. It’s not meant to be an altogether pleasant place.
