Page 120 of The Throne's Undoing

Her eyes widened in surprise. "Why is she mad at you?"

He chuckled. "She's always mad at me for one reason or another. This time it might be because I am the one who dragged her here and let Domitius slip through our hands."

Kallie recalled the events Terin had relayed to her in the infirmary, and her brows drew together. "But from what Terin told me, that is not your fault. You saved her."

"Sure, but she does not see it that way." He shrugged.

"And Terin? Why is she mad at him?"

Graeson sighed. "She knows that he still has a connection to Fynn."

Kallie bit her lip. She had hoped that Terin had listened to her suggestion of letting Dani speak to him, but it seemed he hadn't.

"Fynn didn't want her to know," she murmured.

"Terin told her and I as much, but that does not lessen the pain. When he refused to let her talk to him, she was enraged. She still is."

"And Terin hasn't given in?"

Graeson shook his head.

"Maybe he should," Kallie said.

"Maybe."

Graeson's palms rolled over her shoulders, and the tension in her body lessened. She focused on her breathing, taking deep, slow breaths.

Then she sunk back into his hands, stretching out her legs, her arms resting over the sides of the tubs. After a moment, Graeson's hands stopped, and Kallie's eyelids fluttered open. Although she couldn't see him, she didn't need to in order to realize why he had stopped.

When he had entered the room, she had been covering herself with her limbs. But now, with her legs stretched out, her arms hanging on the side of the tub, she was laid bare before him. The peaks of her breasts lay above the water.

"I thought you said you wouldn't look?" Kallie asked, unable not to poke fun at him and break the tension.

Graeson cleared his throat. Once. Twice. Three times. "I--I wasn't."

"Mhm," Kallie hummed. "Don't worry. If there was someone else in this tub instead of me, I would probably have a hard time looking away, too." She forced her tone to be nonchalant, smug. Unfazed.

This was normal, she told herself. But another part of her said that it was a distraction, a way to divert the wayward thoughts that had consumed her earlier.

But she didn't care.

She inhaled, holding her breath, and submerged herself under the water, fully realizing that it only made her more vulnerable to prying eyes. But also fully knowing she did not care if he looked at her.

She was never one to be self-conscious of her body. To her, it was another tool. However, there was no longer a need for her to use her body against Graeson, was there?

She stayed under the water, scratching her scalp to remove the soap from her hair.

And perhaps she stayed under the water for a little longer than she needed to because she didn't know how to face him now.

After drowning out the intrusive thoughts, she resurfaced, but Graeson was gone when she opened her eyes. His black shirt, discarded on the ground, was the only proof that he had even been there at all.

Chapter 39

GRAESON

Brilliant flames surroundedhim everywhere he looked. The heat of the fire licked his skin, and sweat poured down his face and back. His muscles ached, but he couldn't stop. He had to keep going. No matter how much she clawed at him or how much she kicked.

He had to save her.

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