I glared at him. “If a certain Master of Veythar had not sent half of my prospects scattering in the market, I would possibly be bound by now.”
His eyes darkened instantly, his lip curling in a flash of disgust. “You would not.”
“How do you know that?”
“Because I would never let it happen,” he growled.
I let out a long, frustrated sigh. “Talon, why do you wish to see me fail? Why are you so intent on my ruin?”
“I do not wish to see you fail.”
I peered at him through my lashes, the last traces of sleep vanishing. “Well, you do not wish to see me bound, which means I will end up in a cell with my soul fed to your kin in forty-eight hours. Is that your version of success?”
“I do not wish to see you bound to a man who cannot hear your soul.”
“Well,” I replied coolly, though my fingers tightened in the blanket pooled at my waist. “Haelen was built on people settling for less. I am not special, Talon. I just want to be left alone.”
Talon’s gaze sharpened, the faintest flicker of something dangerous moving behind the icy blue of his eyes.
“Has it ever occurred to you, Kaelia, why the High Court is so terrified of a soul that does not answer to their ledgers?”
My pulse gave a traitorous leap, but I forced my expression to remain flat.
“The High Court preserves the realm,” I said, though the words felt like a script I had memorized but no longer believed. “And you deal only in shadows and cold. Why should I trust your version of the truth?”
“I do not ask for your trust,” he replied, his gaze dropping to the pulse point at my neck. “I only ask why they omit the parts of history they cannot govern. They have convinced you that atrue axis is a myth, because they cannot control a heart that has already found its center.”
My spine stiffened. Axis. Convergence. The Sayel.
He was using the same language as the forbidden texts, but he was twisting it.
“Be careful,” I warned.
He tilted his head slightly. “Of what?”
“Of accusing the court of deceit within its own walls.”
A faint smile curved his mouth, though there was no warmth in it. “You think stone listens?”
“I think you enjoy sowing doubt.”
“I think you are already doubting,” he countered softly. “I am merely providing the mirror.”
I folded my arms over my chest. “The High Court preserves order. The Lunthra ensures proper alignment. The Sayel is extinct. There is nothing left to question, Talon.”
His gaze sharpened at the word, his entire posture going unnaturally still.
“The Sayel,” he repeated slowly.
My heart jolted at the shift in his expression. For a second, the predatory mask slipped, and something unreadable flickered behind the icy blue of his eyes.
Keeper Sora’s voice echoed faintly in my mind.
You would simply know.
“It is extinct,” I repeated firmly. “A tale of history.”
“Is it?” he murmured. “Give me your hands, Kaelia.”