Page 66 of Fragile Oath

There had been no conversation after we left the Assembly chamber, not with two guards flanking Davin like he was a criminal. His own soldiers followed more closely, so he wasn’t at the mercy of men he didn’t trust. That was a small consolation, I supposed.

Now I was here, waiting for him in the bitter cold like he had done for me so many times before. Hamish was stationed up here tonight with another guard, but they had both backed away to give me distance when I arrived.

By the time Davin showed up a solid quarter of an hour later, his hair was markedly more disheveled, indicating he had run his hand through it more than once. If anything, he appeared to have worked himself into a state of aggravation rather than out of one.

He opened his mouth to speak, then closed it without uttering a single word. Once, twice, a third time. Finally, I couldn’t stand it any longer.

“It was the only way,” I said shortly.

He scoffed, his breath forming a wispy cloud. “You seem to think that a lot.”

That might have been true, but I certainly wasn’t the only one with tenuous boundaries. He, of all people, should understand.

“Don’t pretend you aren’t willing to cross lines the same as the one I crossed today,” I said.

A muscle ticked in his jaw, and he looked away, not pretending to misunderstand the comparison between him coming after me for my safety and me faking an engagement for his.

“That was…different,” he hedged.

I arched a single eyebrow. “Was it?”

“It was my job to protect you in my kingdom.” His tone was sure, but his averted gaze told a different story.

Annoyance prickled at my skin, and I lifted my chin in a challenge.

“While my job is, what, exactly?” I fired back, suddenly much less aware of the cold than I had been before. “To be a constant burden on everyone around me? To stand back while the people I care about are threatened and do precisely nothing about it?”

“Care about?” he echoed, his voice tilting up in both a question and an objection.

I didn’t know if he was arguing that I cared or daring me to use the word I had thrown around to the Assembly. The air between us was charged, each measured breath crackling like lightning.

“You know I didn’t leave by choice.” My hands clenched on the railing. “Certainly not because I didn’t care.”

A bitter huff of air escaped his lips. I hated the sound of it nearly as much as I hated the distance between us.

“I don’t honestly know what you’ve done by choice or by obligation or by necessity at this point, Galina,” he said, running his hand through his hair for what was probably the twentieth time this hour.

“Is that why you’re so upset? Because you think I’m doing it out of obligation?”Or because the idea of being engaged to me is so abhorrent at this point?

His sapphire gaze bored into mine. “I wouldn’t have asked you to pretend with me, after…”

The blood drained from my face. After he had watched me play a similar game with Alexei. He couldn’t possibly think this was the same thing.

“You’re nothing like him.” It might have been the truest thing I had said all day.

Davin looked up at the overcast sky for several stilted heartbeats, as if it held the answers he was searching for.

“I told you that you were free to go, and I meant it,” he said after a moment, not quite responding.

“Am I also free to stay, then?” It was as close as I could come to asking if he wanted me to leave.

He heaved a long sigh. “You’re free to do whatever you want, in the unlikely event that you can figure out what that is, let alone admit it.”

“I knew what I wanted.”

“Did you?” He would have sounded genuinely curious, if it weren’t for the backdrop of an altogether darker emotion. “Or did you just know what you needed and manage to convince yourself of the rest?”

I froze, more stung by his words than I had a right to be. Why would he believe me now after I had done nothing but lie to him for weeks? Weariness crept into my limbs, settling deep in my soul. I couldn’t convince him of the truth, and we were running in circles, just like we always did.

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