Page 110 of Siege of Shadows

My first instinct was to summon my magic to fight, but the magic was dead, at least temporarily—by my own hand. I prepared for a struggle nonetheless, whipping around, squeezing my hands into fists, but my strength left the moment I looked up and saw his face.

Rhys.

Maybe my eyes were tricking me, but he’d pulled me close enough that I could see the outline of his defined jaw, his soft, focused eyes. His black hair fluttered, ruffled, across his forehead, though the majority of it was hidden underneath a baseball cap.

My chest swelled, and for that moment I looked up at him, my mind was blank. That was until I remembered Naomi, the blood oozing out from the bullet holes in her battered body.

My name in connection to the attack.

He wasn’t here on duty. In his waist-long corduroy jacket and jeans, I couldn’t see a weapon, though I knew he was trained enough that he didn’t need to carry one to do harm. I was ready again, ready to fight, but when Rhys grabbed my shoulders it was only to shift me this way and that. He was checking for wounds.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

“How did you find me?” was all I could say.

“Are youokay?”

“I didn’t hurt your mother.”

He straightened his back almost immediately and took off his cap, his lips flattening as he tensed at the mere mention of her.

“I didn’t hurt your mother, so...” I exhaled, steeling myself. “Are you here to turn me in?”

Rhys tossed his cap against the protruding roots, and then his hands were on my shoulders again. But it was a gentle grip. His hands were soft as he pushed me back against the tree and kissed me. Short, sweet. So quickly, I could barely register the moistness of his lips as they separated from mine. I was still in shock when he answered.

“No,” he said simply. “No, I’m not.”

He let me go, picking his cap up again before turning his back. If he was confident I wouldn’t take the opportunity to run away, he was right to be. My legs were practically petrified against the solid earth. I wasn’t going anywhere.

“When I heard about my mom, I convinced my brother to lend me a jet to go see her, but I flew to Prague instead,” he said. “Rosa told me you’d be coming here. And not long ago, James told me what car to find you in. That crappily painted Volkswagen, right? You girls sure travel in style.” He turned and smiled.

Rosa and James. Well, I shouldn’t have been surprised. It was his mother. Of course they’d know him. Trust him. Why wouldn’t they? They didn’t know what I knew.

Rhys must have noticed my features crease with concern. “You’re scared.” He paused. “You’re scared that I’m here.”

“Yeah.”

“I told you I’m not going to turn you in.”

“The Sect is looking for me. Your dad. They think what happened to your mom is our fault.”

“Yes, they do. But they can’t track you. And I’m not going to turn you in.”

I looked up at him. “But you’re loyal to the Sect.”

“I’m not going to turn you in.” Rhys’s voice was hushed, but I could hear the desperation in his words—the desperation to be heard. “I’d never hurt you.”

“But you killed Natalya.”

Silence fell. The kind of silence that held the secrets of a thousand years. The symphony of cicadas receded into the recesses of my consciousness, insignificant. I thought Rhys’s eyes would grow wide, but they remained steady. I thought he’d stumble back or turn to escape the judgment barely concealed in my stare. But he remained still.

“Even so,” he said, “I’d never hurt you.”

I didn’t have the energy for any of the emotions I’d thought would stir in me once this moment came. I was tired. I kept my back against the rough bark as I shook my head and searched him. “Why did you do it?”

Rhys fitted his cap back onto his head and looked up at the sky, his broad shoulders limp. “Does Belle know?”

“I haven’t told her.”

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