Page 34 of A Storm in Every Heart
“Fine, you’re right.” I turn my nose up, dismissing him. “I don’t really care what you do, I was just looking for Beatrix.”
The door to the kitchen is on the opposite side of the room, directly across from the door to the entrance hall. I square my shoulders and stomp past Kastian, refusing to look at him. I brush past him, but his large hand whips out and closes around my wrist, halting me in my tracks.
“Let go,” I hiss.
“What are you doing?” he demands, making no move to drop my arm.
I narrow my eyes. “I just told you, I’m looking for Beatrix. I?—”
I take an involuntary step back as Kastian gets abruptly to his feet, his chair clattering against the stone floor. Still holding my wrist tightly between us, he towers over me, close enough now that I can see every detail of his handsome face in the dark.
“I mean, what the fuck are you doing, Odessa? How can you even consider this?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” I try to yank my wrist from his grasp, but he won’t let go.
His lip tips up in a contemptuous sneer. “Don’t play dumb, it’s not attractive.”
“As if I care if you find me attractive. Let me go!”
Kastian makes an angry noise in the back of his throat. “I don’t understand why you would ever agree to go to Hydratta. I know you’re not this naïve.”
I suck in a sharp breath, startled both by the anger in his voice and his sudden proximity. I haven’t heard Kastian angry in years—not since before he went to Dyaspora—and a tiny, evil part of me likes it.
I like unravelling his careful self-control…I always have.
“Were you even listening to the emissary earlier?” I ask, jutting my chin out and meeting his gaze head-on. “They’re offering us way too much with no explanation. Someone needs to go find out why. We need information about Hydratta, and this is the best?—”
“It doesn’t have to be you,” he growls, cutting me off. “You’re not a fighter. You’re not even as strong as the average Fae.”
“Why should that matter?” I demand hotly, finally yanking my arm from his grip to punctuate my point. “I’m more than capable of taking care of myself. And regardless, it’s not really any of your business.”
“Of course it’s my business.”
“Oh, please,” I scoff. “You don’t care about?—”
“He killed my entire fucking family!” Kastian shouts in my face, all pretense of calm crumbling in a single instance.
Quick as a blink, my temper flares, matching his rage blow for blow. “I know!” I scream back. “That’s the entire fucking point!”
I’m sure the entire house can already hear the echoes of us shouting at each other, but I can’t bring myself to care as Kastian takes another aggressive step toward me. Instinctively, I back up, nearly tripping over the upturned chair. I stop when my spine is mere inches away from hitting the wall.
His lips pull back from his teeth in a snarl. “So you want to marry the male who destroyed my entire life? I don’t know what I ever did to make you hate me so much.”
The words are simple, but they hit me like a physical blow.
He reallydoesn’tknow—and isn’t that the entire point?
“Your arrogance is staggering,” I hiss. “Not everything is about you,Your Majesty.”
“Not everything is about me, but this sure as hell is. My mortal enemy, the man who organized the murder of my entire family and got me sent to Dyaspora, is going to marry my?—”
I suck in a sharp breath at the same moment as he breaks off mid-sentence, looking suddenly confused. My heart thunders against my chest as I tilt my head back to meet his furious gaze.
“Your what?” I rasp.
His mortal enemy is marrying his…what?
What am I to him?
