Chapter 212: A Chance To Prove

Elara:

My threat had barely left my mouth when a smile broke across Reign’s lips, and for one deeply irritating second, I forgot what I had been about to say next.

I was standing there, bound against a tree by his ridiculously powerful Earth magic, threatening to make his life miserable the moment I got the chance, and the man had the audacity to smile at me as though I had just told him the funniest joke he had heard all week. He didn’t give me a nervous smile, nor the smug little grin he wore whenever he managed to annoy me. No, this one was slower, warmer, and infinitely more dangerous because it made something inside my chest behave in a way I absolutely refused to acknowledge.

Before I could demand an explanation for his sudden amusement, he leaned closer, closing the little distance between us until his warm breath brushed my face.

My fingers curled instinctively against the vines binding my wrists, and I forced myself to remain perfectly still even as every nerve in my body became painfully aware of how close he was.

"If that’s the case, Trouble," he whispered, his blue eyes holding mine with an intensity that made my next breath catch, "then I’m looking forward to the day you finally have me at your mercy and make me beg."

There was something about his voice, the way he emphasized the last word, and the unmistakable look in his eyes that made me suspect he wasn’t imagining the same kind of begging I had in mind. My cheeks warmed, and I immediately blamed the morning sun. It was the only remotely reasonable explanation available.

"You would better prepare yourself, Valemont," I warned, glaring at him with as much defiance as I could muster while tied to a tree like an exceptionally angry decoration. His smile widened. "Oh, I intend to.

"And for the record," he continued, his gaze slowly moving over my face, "you look breathtaking when you are this worked up."

I stared at him. Surely, there had been a mistake somewhere in the universe. Perhaps I had hit my head during the fight and was now hallucinating an entirely different Reign Valemont, one who had decided that flirting with his captive was a productive use of his morning.

Because the Reign I knew was supposed to be irritating, arrogant, and thoroughly deserving of every unpleasant thought I had ever directed at him. He wasn’t supposed to look at me like that, with amusement softening his expression and something far more difficult to identify simmering beneath it.

My first instinct was to punch him. My second was to find a particularly heavy rock and throw it at his perfectly proportioned head. Unfortunately, both options were unavailable because my hands were still bound, and my body had apparently decided to betray me by becoming increasingly conscious of the warmth radiating from him.

He was so close that all I would have to do was tilt my chin slightly, and my lips would brush against his. The realization struck me with such force that I mentally slapped myself.

Absolutely not. We are not doing this. We are not thinking about kissing Reign Valemont. We are thinking about breaking his nose.

Yet the harder I tried to focus on the many reasons I disliked him, the more aware I became of his mouth, the faint curve of his smile, and the fact that I had never noticed quite how distracting he could be when he wasn’t busy being an insufferable menace.

Something had shifted between us since he stepped closer, or maybe even before that. The tension was still there, but it no longer felt like the familiar hostility that usually crackled whenever we occupied the same space. It was warmer, heavier, and disturbingly intimate. And I had absolutely no idea what to do with it.

I was still trying to make sense of my own treacherous thoughts when Reign lifted one hand and pressed his palm against the tree trunk above my pinned wrist. The movement brought him closer again, his arm creating a partial barrier beside my head as he leaned just enough to catch my attention.

"You know, Elara," he murmured, and something about the way he used my actual name instead of one of his irritating nicknames made me look directly into his eyes, "you are actually really beautiful."

My heart fluttered. Once. Hard. Loudly enough that I briefly wondered whether he could hear it. I hated everything about that reaction, especially because I couldn’t even pretend the compliment hadn’t affected me.

I had been called beautiful before. I had received compliments about my appearance, my eyes, and my hair throughout my life and even after arriving in Starfall. But Reign saying it was different, and that difference annoyed me so much that I immediately reached for sarcasm like a drowning woman reaching for a lifeboat.

"At least your eyes aren’t as useless as your brain and mouth."

He tilted his head, considering me with a look of exaggerated thoughtfulness. "That’s unfair, Trouble. My mouth can be considerably more impressive than my eyes."

My eyebrows drew together. "I sincerely doubt that."

"Then perhaps you should give me a chance to prove it." His voice lowered on the last few words, and the meaning landed between us with all the subtlety of a collapsing building.

My lips parted. My eyes widened. And for one spectacularly humiliating moment, my brain went completely blank.

I should have known what was coming when his gaze dropped from my eyes to my lips, lingering there just long enough to make my pulse race. I should have demanded that he step away, reminded him that he was the same man who had ambushed me in the forest, and used whatever remained of my dignity to put an appropriate amount of distance between us.

Instead, I stood there, staring at him, caught somewhere between outrage and an attraction I had absolutely no intention of examining.

Reign’s expression changed as he watched me, his teasing smile softening into something more intent. For the briefest moment, he seemed to hesitate, as though he was waiting to see whether I would tell him to stop.

I didn’t. I couldn’t have explained why, even if someone had put a blade to my throat and demanded an answer. Then he closed the final breath of distance between us and kissed me.