My hands wring in front of me, and the movement betrays me, making his gaze flick down to my broken bodice. “Corset trouble?” His damn amusement has already rallied.
“Yeah, the trouble is corsets are stupid.”
Ravinger chuckles, and the sound helps me let out the tight breath that was stuck in my throat. He lets a slow gaze drag over me, and I hate how it makes my skin heat, makes my heartbeat quicken. “Good to see you up and about, Lady Auren. I was worried that your return to your golden king was quite…restricting.”
My eyes narrow on his choice of words. “Everything is well in hand, King Ravinger. I thank you for your benevolence in releasing me,” I say with a sickly sweet tone.
He cocks his head, those mossy green eyes never leaving my face. “Does anyone need to release a goldfinch? Or does she do it herself?”
I open my mouth, but no words come out.
He arches a thick black brow, and I immediately see Rip in that gesture, which just makes my stomach sour. Then he tips head ever so slightly in a gesture of respect. “Enjoy your day, Lady Auren.”
Turning, he walks away with a confident stride, while I’m left to stare after him, grappling to make sense of everything that just happened.
“My lady.”
I jump in surprise, whirling around at Scofield’s voice. “Shit. I forgot you two were behind me.”
He shifts on his feet at my curse, sharing a look with Lowe. “We really need to go back inside now.”
His voice and the nervousness in his brown eyes makes me relent. I nod and begin to head back down the stairs, while sharp whispers are traded between my two guards.
The aftershocks of what just happened sway my steps and make my thoughts dizzy. Because that intensity of emotion, that dark desire to punish… I’ve never felt anything quite like that before.
Anger, I realize, tastes like a sugared flame. And after a lifetime of cold bitterness, a part of me wanted to indulge in it, wanted to bloom in its burning embrace.
I don’t know when it happened exactly, but it seems a darkness has sprouted inside of me, nurtured from the cruel soil I was left to wither in.
I felt so powerful. So unstoppable.
And…I liked it.
The very person I accused of being a mindless murderer was the one to stop me from becoming one.
I see you’re awake, Goldfinch.
Goddess, that cool, unruffled voice of his. I have a feeling he wasn’t just talking about me getting up out of bed, either. One sentence, and he grounded me, like gravity to the earth. His voice cut through the sinister one in my own subconscious and drew me back down.
But all the way back to my rooms, one question follows me, like a ghost haunting my steps, dumping sickly cold water over my dampening spirit.
What would I have done if he hadn’t interrupted?
I don’t think I’m ready to face the answer.
Chapter 7
AUREN
I watch the falling snow through the glass panes of my balcony doors as I hum a pub song that’s stuck in my head. It’s an old tune from my time in Third Kingdom, and I don’t remember all the lyrics, but the chorus always made me snort.
Dear John was a yawn
But his trousers hung tight,
So the frills would all smile
And ask him home for a night,
But poor frills, how they trilled—
For it was only a pocket of pipe.
I smirk as I reach into my pocket to feel the pipe I nicked. I spotted its thin wooden length poking out of a passing guard’s holster on the way back to my rooms. It was almost too easy to take it. Seems some of those old pickpocketing skills I learned with Zakir can still be useful.
I release the pipe with a smile on my face, yet that smile slides right off again as I think of my interaction with the captain on the wall. I’d never felt such uncontrollable darkness surge up in me like that. Is that what happens when a caged pet finally breaks free?
Violence sang inside my chest, like a bird of prey lilting as it circled, ready to dive for the kill. It was a daunting lyric for a dark need. How tempting that wicked song sings.
If Ravinger hadn’t shown up, would I have allowed the fury to manifest? Would I have another person’s blood on my gold-clad hands?
And yet, even though that beast is once again silent, I can still feel it there, watching. Some untapped creature ready to rise up.
I go still at that thought, and an old memory slithers forward.
Shove down weakness, and strength will rise.
That long-ago advice has been cropping up in my head lately, but it comes back full force now, like it was always waiting for me to get right here, in this moment, so that I could remember.