Page 117 of Path of the Dark
39
Virgin Territory
THE KNOCK ON her door made Ryana freeze.
Putting down the charcoal enchanter robe she’d laid out for the following morning, she glanced toward the entrance to her chamber. Everyone was still supposed to be celebrating in the throne room. That was why she’d slipped away; no one would notice her gone.
Another knock sounded—a heavy, insistent blow.
Ryana swallowed before calling out. “Who is it?”
The door swung open, framing Elias in the doorway. The sight of him made Ryana’s breathing quicken. Her palms suddenly went clammy, and she turned from the bed. “What do you want?”
“I missed you after the ceremony … Lilia said I’d find you here.”
Ryana clenched her jaw.Shadows take Lilia, couldn’t she have told him that I went to use the privy?
Elias stepped into the chamber, his gaze sweeping to the bed, where an open leather pack sat. Clothing lay strewn around it. “I hear you’re leaving,” he said, his voice flat.
“Aye,” Ryana murmured. “Nathan’s going tomorrow, so I might as well join him.”
“Were you intending to say goodbye?”
Ryana glanced away. “I was hoping to avoid it,” she said softly.
She heard Elias’s heavy tread as he moved across the chamber toward her. “Why?”
“I thought it would make things easier,” she whispered, still not looking at him.
“It’s not like you to act the coward.”
Ryana jerked her chin up, irritation spearing through her. Elias had stopped before her now, and their gazes met. “We were going to go our separate ways sooner or later,” she pointed out, her voice clipped. “I didn’t see the point in prolonging things.”
“So you thought you’d sneak off … after everything we’ve been through together. You thought I deserved no better?”
Heat rose in Ryana’s cheeks. He was deliberately being difficult, deliberately trying to provoke her. She wouldn’t snap at the bait.
Elias’s gaze shifted to the bed then, resting upon the enchanter robe. “Is this the life you want for yourself?”
Catching the challenge in his voice, Ryana stiffened. “Thisismy life.” She drew in a deep breath, forcing herself on. “Circumstances changed things for a few days, but I must now return to The Royal City.”
“What if I don’t want you to?”
Ryana’s lips parted in surprise. She was aware then of how close he stood. Backing away from the bed, Ryana tried to put some distance between them. Her long skirts rustled as she moved, hampering her. However, he followed her, and when she collided with the wall, Ryana’s heart started to flutter like a caged bird.
“That doesn’t matter,” she replied, her voice strangled. “I’ll not be a king’s consort … the wild woman from the north you keep for your pleasure.”
Elias’s dark eyes shadowed. He moved closer still, placing his hands on the wall either side of Ryana, boxing her in. “Is that what you think you are to me?”
Ryana stared back at him. “It’s what I would be. We both know it.”
“What if I asked you to be my queen … to travel south and wed me before the people of Mirrar Rock?”
Ryana drew in a sharp breath. “Why would you want that?”
He gave a soft, sensual laugh that made her knees tremble. “Isn’t it obvious, woman? I’m in love with you.”
Silence followed this admission. The only sound in the chamber was the rasp of their breathing. Elias’s chest moved rapidly now, the expression on his face so intense that Ryana started to feel dizzy.
