جميع فصول : الفصل -الفصل 60

LUCIEN'S POV Tairn."Did you just call megrumpy."I'll call you whatever I decide to call you.I leaned back slowly. "You barely speak to me. Weeks of silence and you come back with grumpy one."I speak when I have something worth saying. And mind you, you are grumpy. In all my years of living I've never met someone as uptight as you."And today you have something worth saying and I'm going to ignore every other thing you said"I do and may I remind you that I do not care if you ignore what I say, it has already been said.I waited.You are not seeing what is directly in front of you."You're going to need to be more specific."No I don't.I exhaled through my nose. "Tairn."The clues have been there. I have been placing them in front of you one by one and you have been walking past every single one without stopping to look."What clues." I sat forward. "You told me your name. You told me you liked Aylin and that there was something wrong with her.That is the complete sum of everyth

LUCIEN'S POVI hated that every dot connected back to humans.I had always hated them. Not without reason. Not without history. I felt it in the part of me that had walked into my father's study at eighteen and found what I found. Their hands in things. Their quiet, deliberate, calculated interference in matters that cost my kind everything.And yet.One human had walked into this palace and changed the shape of something I hadn't known could be changed.I pressed my fingers against the desk.Just because one human was kind did not mean they were all kind at heart. I knew that. I had always known that. One exception did not rewrite centuries of evidence. One person did not determine how every other person thought.I believed that.I was finding it increasingly difficult to hold onto now that everything kept pointing toward the humans.A knock.I already knew before the door opened. My guard. He must have walked with urgency, because I could hear how out of breath he was before he'd ev

AYLIN'S POV The water was still dripping from my hair when I caught myself thinking about him again.No nightmares last night. No voices clawing at the inside of my skull. Just sleep....deep, dreamless, the kind I hadn't had since I arrived at this palace. I told myself it was coincidence. I told myself a lot of things lately that I didn't quite believe.Deep down I knew that in some way Lucien had something to do with it.My mind found it's was back to the encounter. How we were this close to kissing, how I wanted to kiss him badly, how I needed him close to me.I shouldn't be having these thoughts but it felt like Lucien had an invisible string attached to my wrist pulling me towards him and a couldn't resist him.I knew i shouldn't get this close to him,he was still my captor but deep down I was beginning to grow accustomed to it.I pulled a towel tighter around my shoulders and crossed to the wardrobe, pushing the thoughts away before it could take root. "Stop it, Aylin. You know

Nothing could have prepared me for the ballroom.I stood frozen in the doorway, and for a moment I forgot how to breathe. It was the most beautiful thing I had ever laid my eyes on.The ceiling arched high above us, painted with constellations that seemed to shift when I wasn't looking directly at them. Silver pillars lined the walls, wrapped in ivy that glittered like it had been dipped in frost. And the chandeliers....three of them, massive, hanging like fallen moons....were made of crystal so pale and luminous it looked like they'd been carved from moonlight itself."Beautiful, isn't it?" Seraphine came up beside me, her voice soft with something like nostalgia. "Just as beautiful as the last time I was here.""How could anyone get used to this?" I asked in astonishment. "You'd be surprised." She smiled, but there was a shadow behind it, gone before I could ask."Come on. Sad thoughts don't belong in a room this bright."Kaelen was already sprawled against one of the pillars, look

LUCIEN'S POV The knock came sharp against my study door, and I already knew who stood on the other side before I gave the order to enter.Only one person in this palace announced himself with that particular arrogance."Come in."The door opened, and there he was. Golden hair. That same insufferable smile he'd worn since childhood, like the world owed him an audience."Cousin." Roderick spread his arms as he stepped inside. "It's been a while. How are you faring? And the kingdom, is it faring well under your rule?"I gave him a long look before answering. "The kingdom is doing fine. How are you, cousin?""Doing absolutely well." He dropped into the chair across from my desk without waiting to be offered it. "Well let's cross straight to the chase. You know far too well what I'm here for. I've come to help prepare for the ball. Consider me your trusted guide, should you need anything.""How thoughtful of you." I deadpanned.He either missed the edge in my voice or chose to ignore it.