Page 37 of A Clash of Stars

I walked away from that mirror, now a completely different woman than I was this morning. I would no longer allow others to intervene in my life and control me. Finally, I calmed down enough to lie on the bed and glance around the room. Then, I heard a knock, and the door creaked open and in walked Evander.

He closed the door behind him and walked towards me as I sat on the bed. My heart quickened as he approached me.

Anytime he approached me, I felt like my heart would leap out of my chest. Evander was the guy most men feared, the guy girls pined after, and the guy who, for some reason, affected me in a way that I didn’t know how to control. I wanted to smack him but could never go through with it. Deep down, I know I should be appalled with him, but he was so damn alluring I couldn’t help but react.

His dark hair was swept back neatly, his copper skin looked delectable, and the muscles that laced his body pushed against his clothes, causing me to see every detail of him.

“I brought you some salts for a warm bath. Your wounds need to heal more quickly than they are. Come with me.”

I tilted my head in question because they were healing correctly. Probably too fast, but I decided to see where this conversation would take me. He mentioned he wanted to get me out of the castle, but how much of what he says is the truth?

I didn’t protest his request as I got up and walked into the bathroom. In the middle of the room was a black marble tub with a faucet that poured water from the ceiling. The lighting in the bathroom was dark and mysterious, with hints of green and gold accents.

As I followed him further into the bathroom, I watched as Evander turned on the flowing faucet and gently poured in the bathing salts that saturated the room with the smell of lavender and eucalyptus. When he turned to face me, I was struck by his devilishly handsome face and luminous green eyes.

I started to shift my gaze to his neck to see if I could catch what he was hiding earlier. I could see the pulsing golden swirls of his family markings that drifted down into his shirt, and I saw a corner of a star and maybe a partial moon tucked into the shirt. The darker part of me wondered what the other part hidden in his shirt looked like.

As I continued my inspection of him, I couldn’t help but notice how the black buttoned-down peeled back a little at his chest, exposing the rest of the marking and giving me a sneak of what was indeed under it.

The golden marking on his neck proceeded down his arms to his wrist, where the symbols of a star were placed. Before I could continue, he quickly walked past me and closed the doors.

I swung my head around to capture what he was trying to do when he glided towards me effortlessly and grabbed the back of my neck.

In the warmth of his grasp, I could feel the strength and calluses across his palm that slightly scratched my neck. My breath quickened expectedly waiting for him to crash into me. I felt his intense stare burning into me as he leaned down to my ear and spoke quietly, with his warm breath tickling my ear.

“This is the only way that I could talk to you privately without anyone listening. I don’t have much time, so listen quickly. The King plans to have you sacrificed for two purposes. To gain your power and end the curse over our land, but your mother and father have their own plan.

“They escaped Artesia hours before the Variance began, and the King currently knows nothing about their whereabouts. You must understand that I spoke to your parents before the Variance. I am on their side, and I am onyourside, Clara.”

I was slightly stunned when I finally accepted all of the words he had spoken.

“If you are on my side, why allow them to take me? To stab me! Why would you allow that?” I whispered.

He pulled me even closer, “I didnotallow it. I wanted to kill Luke for hurting you, and as for Madok. He needs to learn how to stay away from you.”

I sighed a laugh, “You can’t possibly believe that Madok would stay away from me. We have been friends since we were thirteen years old, and youhateme. Why would you want to help me? You are infuriating and completely unreasonable.”

He scoffed, “Madok will never touch you again, hurt you again, or gain your trust back. Do you know why he stopped talking to you after his coronation? He found out you would have an inamorato. He couldn’t see who you were with but knew it wasn’thim. What a friend he is, keeping something like that from you all these years.”

I tried not to gasp at this shocking revelation thatheknew, but it slipped out, and I pulled out of his grip.

“That is why he never went further than kissing you the other night because he knew you weren’t his to take. Also, I mighthateyou, but I don’t despise you. I might be a bad man, but it doesn’t mean I ignore when bad things happen to good people, and I won’t let anyone hurt you anymore.”

Something in me snapped, and my shock quickly turned to frustration. I pushed him away from me, and my brows furrowed. I looked towards the baththat was becoming so full it might overflow. I briskly walked over to turn it off when he grabbed my hand.

“Two nights from now is the ceremony. Be ready to fight. We will take you out of here and bring you somewhere safe before then. Griffin and Madok will pretend to capture me. It is the only way.”

Instead of responding, I turned off the water. I waited for him to leave the room so I could get in the bath, but he just stood there waiting for me to speak.

“Are you going to leave so I can take my bath, or will you just continue to stand there and watch me like that?” I whispered.

A cunning smirk twisted in the top corner of his mouth as he walked to the black marble countertop. He leaned against it, placing his hands over the marble, exposing his rolled-up sleeves and the veins and muscles hidden earlier.

“I’ll watch,” he whispered.

I laughed. “No, you won’t. Also, while you’re here how can you read my inner thoughts? That’s not your natural born power, is it, Evander?”

He moved his arms to cross his body, hugging his biceps, “I could ask you that same question, Clara.”

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