Ariane:
“How can you be sure?” Varek asked, dragging a hand across his brow like the weight of Eulalia’s presence still clung to him—and maybe the nightmare he had helped pull me from, too, the one he hadn’t even seen but seemed to feel humming beneath my skin.
I hesitated, watching the shadows on his face, then said, “I looked into her mind… Somehow.”
The words sounded absurd, like a confession I had plucked from someone else’s mouth.
Kaelen stiffened, his spine rigid as he turned from the hearth to face me fully. “You looked into her mind?” His voice was a growl wrapped in disbelief. “The f.u.c.k.i.n.g queen of Solareth?”
He didn’t say it like he was impressed.
He said it like he wanted to shake me.
I winced, breathing through my teeth and rocking on my heels. “I didn’t mean to,
