Death Sworn(63)

“Free to go back home and be despised? To never do anything that matters, ever again?”

Something flickered in the black depths of those eyes. Respect? “You could have been safe.”

“You’re the one who’s been telling me how unimportant safety is.”

“And you’ve been listening?” he said, with such undisguised astonishment that, despite everything, she laughed. The laugh had an edge of hysteria to it, and she cut it off before it could dissolve into tears.

“Not on purpose, I assure you.”

He shifted his weight toward her, and her heart began to pound. Then he turned abruptly and put one hand on the door handle.

“Sorin,” she said, and he looked back with his hand still closed around the dark wood. His arm was so tense it shook a little. “Was it your master who told you to give me a chance to escape?”

He blinked. “What would the master gain from your disappearance?”

“What would you gain?”

His expression didn’t change, but all at once she recognized it. Only Tellis had ever looked at her like that. Her throat went dry.

“Did you really think I would run?” she said.

She could hear his indrawn breath. “I hoped you would.”

Ileni stood frozen, not sure what to think. All this time believing she was nothing but a duty to Sorin . . . all this time, telling herself she didn’t care. When she cared so much she could barely breathe.

“I shouldn’t have done it.” He said it like he was angry. “I try not to think about you. But then you go and do something so stupid, put yourself in such danger, and if you died . . .” He ran out of breath then, and stared at her across the room.

Ileni’s voice came out in a whisper. “It’s all right.”

His breath hissed out, and she realized he was angry. “Of course it isn’t. The way I feel, it’s not—”

“Safe?” She stepped toward him, hardly aware that she was doing it. “Do you even like being safe? That wasn’t my impression.”

“I have no right to risk my life for this.” He stepped back against the door, as if she was a threat. It was the most flattering thing he had done since she entered the caves. “It means nothing. It was inevitable, even. After all, you’re the only girl I ever see.”

That was rather less flattering.

“I thought, once I go out on a longer mission—I mean, once I get the chance to be with other women—” Sorin’s jaw clenched. “I’ll forget about you.”

That did it. Ileni launched herself forward, with more determination than grace, and kissed him.

After a startled moment, he responded, his hands coming up hesitantly to her face, then dropping to her shoulders. After another moment—or several—Ileni leaned back and stared at him in disbelief.

Sorin flushed to the roots of his hair and dropped his hands, a bit unsteadily, the first movement she had ever seen him make that was less than completely graceful. “I told you. You’re the first girl I ever—um—”

Ileni started to laugh. “You’re one of the assassins, famed for their allure and irresistibility to women. And you’ve never kissed a girl?”

“I’ve only been on one mission,” he said stiffly. “And it was a short one. Who would I have kissed?”

“I guess I assumed that would be part of your training. You know, how to seduce women to make it easier to kill their husbands. Or something like that.”

“Maybe it’s an advanced class,” Sorin said.

The terseness in his voice didn’t bother Ileni; but there was embarrassment there, too, so she made an effort to look less amused.

Sorin leaned toward her, his cheeks still tinged red, and said, “Either way, I’ve had no prior training. You’ll have to start from scratch.”

Upon consideration, that didn’t seem like a bad idea at all.





Chapter 15

The next morning, Ileni caught herself whistling on her way to the training room.

She stopped immediately, pressing her lips together. What was wrong with her? Last night she had seen a man killed, let an imperial spy escape, given up her only chance to go home. . . .

And she barely cared.

Sorin strode ahead of her. She resisted the urge to smile at his set shoulders. He had been every bit as distant on the way to breakfast, refusing to meet her eyes. Refusing to blush, too. She was willing to bet he couldn’t look at her without remembering his eagerness the night before.