The dark pressed in close, swallowing sound and sight until only the echo of his voice remained. My heart thudded wildly, as though trying to claw its way out of my chest.
Riven's hand slid from my wrist to my throat. Not crushing, not yet, just the promise of power curled around my pulse. His touch was cold and fevered all at once, the kind of sensation that made the body tremble before the mind could catch up.
"You should not be here," I whispered. My words fell into the dark like a prayer already damned.
"And yet here I am," he said, his mouth brushing the shell of my ear, his tone silk over steel. "Did you mourn me, wife? Did you weep when the stone sealed shut? Or did you climb into another's bed while the earth still drank my blood?"
Heat flared in my face. Fury, shame, desire. "You know what Kael did to me. You know I never chose him."
