Page 75 of Stolen
My chest aches with something I don’t understand. Want, maybe. Or hope.
Or maybe both.
Shade turns to speak with another attendant, giving me space.
Alaric’s attention is summoned by his people, and he drops his gaze.
Though, maybe he does it reluctantly? Like he doesn’t want to stop looking at me.
I stand quietly, not wanting to intrude, watching him like he’s the last page of a story I’m desperate to read again.
Until I’m no longer alone.
“Quite the image, isn’t he?” a deep, accented voice says from somewhere behind me.
I stiffen and turn, just enough to see a man standing far too close. He’s tall, muscular, with dark hair braided back and ink crawling over the side of his face and neck in swirling, unfamiliar patterns.
His eyes—a color I’ve never seen on a man, all fire and shades of red and orange—gleam with knowing.
“Are you fooled by the illusion you see before you, human?”
My spine straightens. “Excuse me?”
He smiles, and it isn’t friendly.
“Lord Alaric in all his glory,” he says, gesturing toward the throne with mockery dripping from his voice. “But do you really believe that is who he is? A benevolent ruler? A noble protector?”
I frown. “Heistheir Lord. They respect him.”
“Respect,” he sneers, “is not love. And love is not something he is capable of. Not the kind you seek, anyway.”
That hits a little too close.
“I don’t know what you think you know,” I snap, “but?—”
“Oh, Iknow,” he cuts in smoothly. “You want him to love you. You want him to choose you. But his heart already has a master.”
The words land like stones.
“Nightfall,” he says softly. “It owns him. It always has.”
I look toward the platform again. Alaric is still seated there, head tilted slightly as he doles out favors and grants petitions to his subjects.
“If you want his love,” the stranger whispers, stepping closer, “I’m afraid, little human, you will never get it.”
A chill moves through me. One I can’t explain.
But before I can respond—before I can demand who he is or how he knows any of this—he’s gone.
Just gone.
Shade returns a moment later, but I barely register her presence. Because something inside me has started to crack.
And I don’t know if I can survive what might be on the other side.
Chapter17
Alaric
