I look down, eyes skating over the rough threads of the thick socks I have on my feet. They’re not gilded either, and something uneasy tempers in my chest.
“No. Yes. I don’t know.”
My ears perk with the sound of him taking a single step forward. My body wants to sway toward him, to move with the force of his approach, because his nearness has always been a force of its own. One that’s always held power over me.
I feel the heat of his body in front of me, the shadows cast from his body mingling with mine. “I claimed you that night in Ranhold,” he tells me, his tone so full of unfaltering fire that it draws my gaze back up. Heat flushes my face, as if he really were ablaze, his words igniting the packed-down snow of my spirit. “And then you claimed me right back, in the middle of a ballroom for everyone to hear. Or don’t you remember?”
Flashes.
A crowd of faces.
Lines of armored guards.
Cruel, angry eyes beneath a golden crown.
The heat of a body at my back.
And then my own clear, unshakable voice. He’s mine.
It wasn’t just a claiming, it was a challenge. As if I was ready to destroy anyone who tried to refute it or take him away from me.
Do I remember? Of course I do. I remember every single encounter with him. I walked off a pirate ship and fell at his feet in the snow, and ever since then, it’s like I’ve just kept on falling.
“I want to go see the cave.”
“You want to keep avoiding everything,” he counters.
A barbed laugh scrapes past my lips. “And if I do? That’s my prerogative. I have been controlled and owned for over twenty years of my life,” I say, eyes flashing. “So if I want to avoid something and see a damned cave, then that’s what I’m going to do.”
The muscle in his jaw jumps, but he doesn’t argue, doesn’t try to talk me into anything else, and I’m grateful for that, because my head is pounding and my back is twinging, and I just need to get out.
Turning around, I head for the door, but right as I reach for the knob, I jerk to a stop, snatching my palm away in hesitation.
There’s a moment’s pause, but then Slade says, “It’s nighttime.”
Because he knows without me saying anything. He somehow understood my sudden spike of anxiety that I was going to gild the whole damn door.
I hesitate. “So, I only slept a few hours, or…？” My question is pregnant with pause, with another question that I’m not voicing yet.
“No, you slept the day away.”
My eyes flick down to my black and brown clothes, and then I give a jerky nod.
Swallowing hard, I turn the knob and walk out in the hallway. It’s just as dark as the bedroom was, the wood paneled walls broken up by sconces. They’re made up of rough, clear crystals that seem like they were plucked from a mine and hung here, their basins full of oil to feed the flickering flames.
My shadow casts along the walls as I walk, but Slade’s voice stops me. “You’ll need those shoes, Auren.”
Stopping, I turn around to see him heading in the opposite direction. He disappears into the last doorway in the hall, returning several seconds later with a pair of boots and a leather coat.
When he reaches me, I expect him to hand them both over. He doesn’t.
My eyes go wide as he drops to one knee in front of me. I watch as he picks up my left foot and slips on the boot, lacing it up one row at a time. Each deft movement of his fingers has me entranced, and my heart beats so hard in my chest that I worry he’ll feel the pulse all the way down my leg.
Setting my foot down, he picks up the other to do the same thing, his hand gripping my calf with steady surety. Heat bursts from the spot of his touch, and my skin tingles despite the layer of clothing between us.
Finished, he stands up, so close now that I can see every fleck in his eyes, from the dappling of a summer’s lush green pasture to the onyx shadows lurking just behind it.
Without saying a word, he moves around me and, with excruciating gentleness, helps me into the coat. It’s entirely too big, but it hangs loosely around my shoulders, the fabric warm without the oppressive weight.
I feel his breath against the side of my neck, his hands gently skimming the collar to make sure my skin is protected from the cold. He moves reverently, and it’s these moments of surprising intimacy that burn into my heart.
I’ve always been treated like treasure, but with Slade, I’m simply treasured.
I bury my nose deeper into the coat so I can breathe in his scent that’s covering it. The smell of damp earth and sunned bark, of the sweetness of chocolate charred by bitter richness.