Page 229 of Storm of Secrets and Sorrow

Well, he wouldn’t want to stay in this room. It was why he was collecting all his essentials now.

Checking his watch, he found they had fifteen minutes until their ride would be here.

Yep, their ride. They were being godsdamn collected. That alone told him how this meeting was going to go. His father wanted him monitored and unable to leave on his own.

“Axel—” Katya finally started.

“Don’t, Katya,” he snapped. “Not now. Not… Just don’t.”

But of course she didn’t stop. “I understand that you’re anxious about this meeting.”

Anxious.

That was one word for it.

“I need you to tell me what is happening here,” she went on.

“You know what’s happening here,” he replied. “The Arius Lord has summoned us.”

“Yes, but?—”

“And outside these walls, the illusion we’ve built for ourselves here is nonexistent.”

“An illusion?” she repeated, taking a small step back from him.

“What did you think we were doing here, Katya?”

“Katya,” she whispered. Then, a little louder, she said, “That’s the second time you’ve said my full name in a matter of minutes.”

Axel brought his hands up, wanting to rake them through his hair, but he stopped himself. He didn’t have time to fix it yet again. “I never should have—” He snapped his mouth shut. He couldn’t be doing this.

“Never should have what?” she challenged, that agitation creeping into her tone.

“You can’t do this,” he retorted. “Whatever freedoms you think you’ve gained in this room, you haven’t. If anything, I have only made things so much worse for you.”

“Axel—”

“No,” he interrupted sharply, advancing on her before he realized what he was doing. He had to give her credit. She didn’t move until he was nearly on top of her. Only then did she stumble back a few steps. Instinctively, his hand shot out to catch her, gripping her arm.

That one touch had him gritting his teeth and sucking in a breath.

Which only caused him to be assaulted with jasmine and citrus and spices.

“You’re hurting me, Axel,” she whispered, and his gaze darted to where he still grasped her, his hold tight, directly over the scar she’d forever bare.

“You have no idea just how true that statement is,” he replied, releasing her and stepping back.

“I need you to tell me what to be prepared for. I need you to…”

She trailed off, rubbing at her arm before bringing her eyes back to his. There was a renewed determination in them, and if he wasn’t convinced he was about to watch her be brutally tortured, he’d have kissed her.

“I need you, Axel,” she finally said, her voice full of that quiet fierceness he’d loved drawing out of her from the first moment he’d spoken to her.

“You don’t need me,” he retorted. “You shouldn’t need me. Youcan’tneed me.”

“But I?—”

“Enough, Katya.”

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