His eyes narrowed as he studied her. There was nothing kind in his expression—he looked at her as if she was a puzzle he was trying to solve.
After a few painful minutes, he sighed. “Are you lying to me again?”
Again.
She hated that he even had to ask that. She squeezed her eyes shut so he wouldn’t see the hurt flickering through them, and she curled her fists. Her nails cut crescent moons in her palms.
Did Ryker know his words were sharper than any of the silver instruments of torture she’d been subjected to over the past three weeks?
After what Brynleigh had done, she deserved the question, but it still stung. All of this stung.
She wouldn’t cry, though. She wouldn’t let him know how deeply he was hurting her.
Her pain was her penance.
“I’m not lying,” she said when she could trust herself to speak without her voice breaking. “I swear on my family’s graves, I will never lie to you again.” What would be the point? She and Ryker were already shattered. “I have never heard the name.”
His stormy gaze pinned her to her seat. She was no longer confined to that iron chair, yet she could not move beneath the weight of his attention.
This was the fae captain, she realized.
Thiswas why he had risen in the ranks so quickly and gained so much power. It wasn’t just because of his mother’s position as a Representative—although that certainly must have helped—it was because everything he did, every movement he made, screamed that he was in control.
After an eternity, Ryker loosened his grip on the box and nodded. “Okay. I believe you.”
As he should. She wasn’t lying about this.
She breathed, “Thank you.”
They stared at each other, neither speaking as that awkward ocean grew and grew between them.
After several uncomfortable, frigid minutes passed, Brynleigh asked, “So… who is he?”
Ryker palmed the back of his neck.
Damn it all, but she couldn’t help but notice the way his muscles tensed beneath the fabric of his shirt. Even now, after everything that had happened, she still found him incredibly attractive.
What did that say about her? She was still healing from being tortured. She shouldn’t be having these kinds of thoughts.
“I can’t believe you don’t know about him,” Ryker muttered. It sounded like he was talking to himself.
“I have no idea who he is,” she reiterated.
Ryker’s brows furrowed, and he shook his head. “He’s… Emery Sylvain is Jelisette de la Point’s Bound Partner.”
Bound Partner.
The words didn’t register for a minute, but when they did…
Oh, gods.
Had Brynleigh been feeling better before? That was no longer the case. Her stomach bottomed out, and her head spun.
It felt like she’d just been thrown off a high-rise building, and now she was careening through the skies without her wings to save herself.
Bound Partner.
Her fingers grappled at the armrests, and she swayed from side to side. Her mouth dried, and black spots filled her vision.