Page 23 of Onyx Cage: Volume II

It was still too warm in here. Suffocating, even.

I wrenched myself out of bed, cracking open a window to allow some of the cool night air in.

That was better. Marginally.

I needed to move, to spar, but there were too many eyes on me here, so I settled for getting some work done. There was no end of things to check on at the estate, and at this point, I would use anything to distract me from everything and everyone that was here. I sunk into the narrow winged-back chair, moving to open the drawer in search of parchment when a scraping sounded to my right.

Der’mo.

I had known better than to relax in a castle surrounded by the enemy. I had done a cursory check for passages earlier, but the servants coming through the front door had made me lower my guard.

I reached for my sword, getting to my feet to defend myself against the assailant when a chaotic head of crimson curls came into view. Then Rowan was there, standing in my rooms, looking only slightly less likely to murder me than an enemy soldier.

And a fraction as capable, if the minute wobble in her stance was anything to go by.

For reasons that were a mystery to me, she had clearly come here in somewhat of a hurry, and with no small amount of anger to accompany her, judging by the glower she wore. Her emerald robe swept the floor, lopsided and tied loosely with a matching silk belt. A wide expanse of her sheer white nightgown was visible all the way down, flowing but just fitted enough to outline her curves.

I wrenched my gaze forcibly back to her face, only to find that she had turned her death stare on my bed. It gave me a second to put my mask firmly in place so that my voice was casual when I spoke, like I wasn’t entirely caught off guard to have her intruding through a panel in my wall after a night of pretending I didn’t exist.

“Lemmikki?” It was the politest way I could ask what she was doing, barreling into my room in the middle of the night to glare at my furniture.

She didn’t answer, only narrowed her pale green gaze further.

“Does that bed offend you?” I pressed, still confused about her purpose in coming here.

Her eyes snapped back to mine. “I’m only surprised to find it so empty.”

Of all the things I expected her to say, somehow that was not one of them. Reactions flitted through my mind too quickly to process, offense and indignation and what might have been an iota of amusement if she hadn’t been such a storms-blasted hypocrite.

Besides, if she had actually been surprised to find my bed empty, why had she come?

“And yet, you came in without knocking,” I pointed out, trying to force a smirk past the irritation winding through to my very soul. “How very voyeuristic of you.”

Crimson crept up her neck, into her cheeks, but she lifted her chin defiantly.

“She left already, then?” Each word was carefully enunciated, and I wondered if she had helped herself to the bottle in Korhonan’s room, just as I had helped myself to mine.

Whichshewas she referring to, I wasn’t sure, of the many who had made subtle and less than subtle offers tonight? Picturing a hand on my forehead and green eyes glaring from across the room, it wasn’t hard to guess.

At least Fiona had been clear in her intentions instead of whatever-the-hell games my lemmikki was playing tonight.

I picked up my glass, trying very hard not to break it in my grip. Though I drained half the contents in one long sip, it didn’t give me a single ounce of control.

So I shrugged my shoulder and baited her, memories of the night before Mila came to the cabin surfacing unwanted into my mind. “You know how I feel about people in my space for too long.”

It was true, usually. I did hate people in my space. Hell, for that matter, it was true right now, also. The last thing I needed was her, here, intruding on my carefully wrought control the way she always did.

But it hadn’t been true when she was at Bear—not that I was going to admit that right now.

She blinked, her lips parting in outrage.

“Right.” She nodded. “Because why have company when you can be bitter and alone?”

Her words hit too close to the way I’d felt the past few months, the time she had been no doubt writing back and forth with the long-lost not-quite-love of her life. And then the evening she spent dancing with him not, three feet from me, and then came to throw that in my face for reasons I didn’t remotely feel like dissecting.

A frustrated sigh escaped me. “Did you need something, Lemmikki, or did you merely leave Korhonan’s bed to scrutinize mine?”

I heard the emptiness in my tone, just as I saw her react to it. She stiffened, casting me a frigid smile.