Page 110 of Lady of Ashes

“Just … stay here,” Callan said, turning his back on him and leading Tava down to another door that would lead to a hall.

“Where are we going, Callan?” Tava asked softly beside him when they’d entered the hallway.

“You said you needed some air,” he replied, glancing down at her brie?y.

“I did, but it was because I could tellyouneeded a moment,” she answered.

He pushed open a door and gestured for her to go through. “Are you always this sel?ess?” he asked, stepping in after her. He’d ledher to a small conservatory with several large windows. It was far too cold to actually go out and get some air, but he thought this to be the best alternative for her.

“What?” she asked, glancing over at him from where she’d stopped before one of the windows.

“You interrupted my dance with Veda because you saw I needed a moment. You agreed to this scheme for the people of this kingdom. You did much for Scarlett after … everything,” he answered, coming to her side. “All incredibly sel?ess things.”

“Or it is simply kindness,” she said with a shrug.

“Kindness and sel?essness could be considered semantics, you know.”

Tava laughed softly. “I suppose they could be.”

A comfortable silence fell between them, and she ran her ?ngers along the leaves of a large fern.

“Veda does not believe us,” he ?nally sighed, running his hand along his jaw.

“I never expected them to,” Tava answered.

“Do you not ?nd this somewhat ridiculous?”

She smiled serenely up at him. “You will need to be a little more speci?c.”

“All of this,” he said, his arm sweeping out in an encompassing gesture. “The fact that we are pretending to be in a relationship to appease my father. And for what? To keep him from learning of Mikale and Veda and your father? Why are we all speaking in riddles and acting as though we all do not know exactly what the other is hiding and seeking?”

Tava’s head tilted slightly to the side as she studied him. She’d picked a small purple ?ower and was twirling the stem of it between her ?ngers. “You wish to ?ght back?”

“What? No,” Callan started.

“Hmm,” Tava mused, bringing the ?ower to her nose and snif?ng. “It sounds to me like you want to.”

Her ocean blue eyes were watching him curiously, waiting for his next words. And he realized she was right. Hedidwant to strike back at them, atsomeone, for forcing them into this. For coming after his people. For coming after him.

“What if I did? Want to ?ght back?” he asked slowly.

Her lips tilted up a little more. “I would say you are the Crown Prince. Who is going to stop you?”

“And you?”

“What of me?”

“Do you wish to ?ght back? Against what your father is pushing? Against what they are trying to do to the children of the Black Syndicate?”

Tava stepped towards him and reached up, tucking the ?ower along a pocket of his tunic. “I have fought back every day since you left for the Fire Court, Callan,” she replied, her voice quiet and ?erce. “I snuck out of my house in the dead of night to meet with Death’s Shadow. I paid for food and clothing to be left in prearranged places and made sure they found their way to those who needed them. I passed information I heard in passing to Scarlett, to Sorin, to Cassius. All of it to ?ght back. All of it to ?ght for those who deserve something better than what they were dealt in life.”

She looked up at him, her ?ngers resting against his chest where they had smoothed fabric down around the ?ower stem. “I have sat among the highest of our society and those that society wishes didn’t exist. They all deserve to be fought for, Callan. We deserve rulers who care for us as mortals. Not magical beings whose ?rst priority will always be their own.”

“So sel?ess,” he murmured.

Then she pushed up on her toes, her lips pressing to his. He was so surprised, he didn’t move at ?rst, but as her small ?sts clenched the front of his tunic, he found his own arms coming up and pulling her closer, deepening the kiss. She tasted like pure sunlight, and it was so stark and different from the last person he’d kissed. It was almost a shock to his senses, and it was one he didn’t entirely mind. Entirely unexpected, but something he found himself welcoming.

The door banged open, and it had Tava jumping in his arms as they both spun towards the door. Her lips popped open in shock, and then she was burying her face in his chest, her cheeks ?aring bright red, as his eyes landed on Veda Lairwood. Her mouth was hanging open in shock, and her dark eyes were alight with rage.

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