Page 92 of Of Serpents and Ruins
"Don't tell me you've given up!" I snapped, my voice harsher than I intended. "This isn't—No, Brandt!" A ragged sob dragged up my throat. I slapped my hand over my mouth as I shook my head. "Maybe the Gola Resh lied! She loves to lie and spread dissension. Maybe there's something else. You aren't going to die. We're going to find another way around this."
While I ranted, he remained silent, arms spread wide and fastened to the wall. His gaze followed me as I paced. The wind wailed outside with the pattering of the rain.
I just kept repeating myself. I couldn't stop until at last I flung my arms up in the air and turned to face him. "Say something!"
He scoffed, but his dark-red eyes remained soft. A hungry glowing fire burned but not a fight. "If this is my last night to see you, then I’m glad you could be here, that we could have this time together alone when I don’t have to fear whether I will harm you. What the Gola Resh intended as cruelty is instead a blessing."
"No." I held my finger up to his lips, shaking my head. Tears leaked down my cheeks. "No! This isn't our last night. I'll…I'll—"
"What? You'll stay here with me until the very end?" He gave me a wry smile. "Arjax and Lorna will hand the spear over even if it's just Kine who goes, but you were closer to them, and while I'm not a seer, I know you should be there. It will comfort you."
"You just don't want me to see—" I swallowed hard.
No, that was unfair. Of course he didn't want me to see him succumb to madness. Who would want that? But Auntie Runa was right. Our being close to one another would make everything harder.
Maybe there was something else. Auntie Runa had always described foresight and visions as coming to us on their own, but I closed my eyes and reached out into the darkness of my thoughts, begging, pleading for some kind of answer. Some alternative.
There was nothing.
The minutes dripped by, only the beating of the rain against the stone outside to mark them. My own breaths shuddered.
Nothing.
Nothing.
Nothing!
"Hm." Brandt cleared his throat.
When I opened my eyes, he was studying me, head tilted, gaze half-lidded and soft. "What happened to my brash, fearless seer?" he asked, meaning to tease me.
The pressure throughout my chest constricted even tighter, choking me as I fought desperately not to cry any more than I had. "I can't see anything about us. I can't feel anything about us except fear. Fear of losing you. Are you just giving up?"
The last question was more of an accusation, and it wasn't fair, especially not when he was chained down like this.
He smirked. "No, Stella." His gaze traveled up and down my body. "I'm just recognizing that this could be the last night I see you, and I've got to say…abyssal damnation, woman, look at you."
"Don't try to change the subject. Don't you dare start flirting with me!"
His eyebrow arched, his mouth quirking. "Oh…now we aren't flirting? Would it be…inappropriate?"
I folded my arms tight over my breasts. "I'm not in a playful mood."
He got flirty at the weirdest times.
He twitched his massive sculpted arms. His gorgeous serpent tattoos glistened in the torchlight.
Dragging my hands across my face, I tried to compose myself. For now, the magnitude of the haziness and the humming that had been present in my other encounters with Brandt had not returned. The need was controllable, but how long would that last? Besides, I had to warn someone about the Gola Resh. Someone had to know something. Anything!
"We're going to find a way out of this, Brandt."
"I love you, Stella."
"Don't you dare," I whispered hoarsely, clenching my fist against my mouth.
"Don't dare tell you I love you?" He chuckled.
"You know what I mean." Dashing the tears away, I started for the door. "We've got to strengthen the wards or do something to keep her away. There has to be something we can do."
