Page 173 of Bride of the Midnight Prince

But itwasn’t her.

It wasn’t her.

I turn around, trying to pull myself together. I am usually not so easily shaken.

One way or another, this woman will be my undoing.

I breathe deeply into my gut until I am composed enough to speak. Still, I don’t turn around. The sounds of her and Mary bustling around the kitchen have gone quiet, as though they stand waiting for me. “Kat,” I say at last. “Please come to bed.”

I leave before she gives an answer, marching to our room.

Chapter 55

Kat

“Don’tgotohisroom,” Mary silently pleads with me. “We can leave now. We can go to Vandermore Manor tonight.”

“He believed me. I saw it in his face. I’m perfectly safe,” I mouth back.

She gives me such a look of pain I almost give in right then, just to see the worry leave her eyes. Then I think of the people I failed tonight. Jack, his sister, and that poor woman. My resolve hardens.

“I’m going to be fine. He isn’t going to hurt me.”

Not yet.

Before she can protest any more, I grab the shawl at the bottom of the basket we’d prepared. The basket that saved my life. I didn’t have time to put on the shawl before he burst into the kitchen. I take it now and wrap it around my shoulders like a shield as I make my way to our bedroom.

Rahk is washing his face when I enter. He looks up, and between the long, wet strands of his hair, there is a fierceness in his eyes I have not seen before. He’s discarded his clothes in favor of the same soft trousers he wore last night and a loose black shirt with laces he hasn’t bothered tying, leaving his torso partially exposed.

I tug my shawl closer around my shoulders and would have marched straight to my side of the bed, pulled the covers over my head, and frozen him out for scaring all of us so much. Instead, he prowls across the room, intercepting me.

My back hits the wall as he snatches my jaw, forcing me to look up at him while his gaze burns into my face. “What are you doing?” I demand. “You haven’t had enough of frightening the daylights out of me today?”

His voice is shaking with anger. “I thought I’d lost you.”

Be clueless. Be confused.

Lie, lie, lie.

“Why would you have lost me?” I laugh uneasily. Now I’m shaking too. “I was just in the kitchen. Why did this spook you so much? You’re not yourself.”

Rahk’s hands slide to hold my head, his fingers touching the short, dark strands of my hair. His voice comes out in a growl. “I was in Faerieland. I saw someone there. A woman on a horse. She looked just like you.”

Everything inside me plunges to the floor. I try to think fast, to react how I would if I didn’t know exactly what he meant. “Edvear said you were with Lord Oliver!”

“I deceived you,” he admits. His forehead comes to rest against mine, his breath panting against my mouth. “I’m sorry. I didn’t want you to worry. I return to Faerieland often. There is business for me there. But when I saw that woman, it scared me to death. When I came back, and you weren’t here—”

“Rahk. It’s alright.” I try to say it gently as I reach up and cup his face. He leans into my touch, closing his eyes, releasing a shudder. “I’m here. I’m safe.”

He swallows hard. “I’m sorry. I just—I thought I lost you, Kat.”

His words drive knives into my gut. I fight the knot rising in my throat. My voice cracks. “You know we will lose each other, one way or another.”

“I know,” he growls.

Then his lips are on mine, his weight pressing into me. Rahk is always collected, controlled, and rational. But this kiss is scribed in desperation. He holds me like I might crumble through his fingers and be carried away in the wind. I kiss him back, wrapping my arms around his neck and pulling him to me with my own equal measure of desperation. I love him and I hate that I love him but there is no stopping it. I love him—my hunter and my husband. He will destroy me as I destroy him.

And if my death must come at the hands of a fae, then I long for it to be Rahk’s.

---