Hescoffs.
“That the Council would attempt to discredit our union? Of course. Only a child would think otherwise.” The words are so caustic that I’m glad that he’s sipping his drink and can’t see my face.
That’s me. A child in a game of words and power.
“You could have told me.” The bitemark on my neck throbs with the betrayal.
He sets the glass on the table, tapping a talon for a breath.
I want to see his expression, to see if this coldness is the reality I’d been too dumb to pick up on. But I’m bare and need a better shield before going into battle.
The duvet I tried to wrap around myself hardly covers anything. He’d skipped pulling it back earlier not because he was so eager for me, but because sheets would allow me too much coverage when the interruption came.
My throat swells and threatens to choke me with the truths of the pretty fantasy in my head.
“There’s no room for error or hesitation. The Council is stocked with predictable players just waiting for a lapse in judgment.” He sighs, and it almost sounds regretful, but the illusion that he feels anything for me, or this situation, is long gone when he faces me again.
“The trick to succeeding in this game, is knowing who the players are…” His gray gaze is icy and dismissive as he takes in my debauched form. “And who are the pieces.”
He turns toward the windows and opens balcony doors that I’d missed in my cursory inspection of the room. “Don’t wait up for me.”
I choke as the Devil spreads the wings I’d so admired and disappears into the night without another word.
2
STELLA
“Fuck you,”I breathe out finally, staring at the open balcony doors. Cold air seeps into the room and clashes with the heat in my cheeks.
The cold is the reason I’m trembling. Not from the sudden loss of my bearings. Not from the deep humiliation of being used as a prop.
Or is it rage? Rage would be more comforting.
Yeah. It’s rage. Fuck that manipulative gargoyle right to hell.
I wipe my eyes to hide any moisture there from myself. I can’t quite stop the gasping sob that catches my breath as details come from the woodwork of what just occurred.
He knows about my ability with jewelry. He must. He removed his rings and piercings so I wouldn’t divine his intentions from them.
I probably wouldn’t have been able to. I can only pick up emotions from jewelry when the piece is absolutely saturated with it, but that taste of something unfamiliar and heady when I’d brushed his earrings makes me curse for not paying better attention.
Once he bit me, he didn’t have to keep up his seductive charade.
There’s a deep irony to this moment. I chose this path to helping Kalos because I wanted to destroy Lorenzo for throwing Mom and me away. The anger toward him had burned and burned, but I’d known I was too minor of a player to make him pay in the way I wanted him to.
I’d married Stoneheart to make that strike. To stop being a minor player in the world of giants. And now he thinks I’m merely a piece for him to play with.
I’m not. I won’t let him turn me into a pawn.
I have allies.
First things first, clean up and clothes. And maybe by then, I’ll be composed enough to come up with a scheme.Anything.
My inhale is ragged as I finally take in the room. It’s decked out in the kind of luxury I’ve seen fringes of while growing up, and it’s unsettling.
This was the world I’d been slated for if I’d come out a shifter like I was supposed to, but that was wiped away. Mom was disowned when Lorenzo Leonid rejected her. Luckily, she’d had some money, and we were able to make do, but there’s something about feeling so out of place with the lush décor around me that adds another sting to the situation.
I blow out a hard breath and stand, not bothering to keep Stoneheart’s release from dripping. He can afford an extra cleaning charge.