chapter 16
He caught my arm again, harder this time. “Don’t test me.”
Every nerve in my body lit up. Not with fear. Not this time.
With fury.
I leaned in until only he could hear me. “The last man who said that to me thought pain made him powerful.”
Something moved in his expression. Not recognition. But a ripple. As if some primitive part of him heard an echo his mind couldn’t place.
I stepped back.
Then I deliberately did the one thing old Nora never would have done.
I walked away from him and crossed the room to Gideon Vale.
Ethan saw.
I wanted him to.
The chain reaction was immediate. Rumors. Friction. Rose’s sudden tears whenever my name came up. Ethan showing up twice at places I had never invited him to. His messages getting shorter, stranger, less controlled.
Then Rose made her mistake.
She came to me alone.
It was late, raining, the city silver with reflected light. I had just left Whitfield Tower when she stepped out from behind a pillar under the awning, drenched at the edges, face pale enough to look almost translucent.
“I need to talk to you.”
I should have walked past her.
Instead I stopped.