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He ive an anshich was for the best No ansould do her any good She crossed her ar them stone His eyes were dark blue and deep set, his hair too long and tangled, and he earing dark clothes that had seen better days He sat in an ornate chair, fraold brocade curtains, and he clearly belonged there
If her stare washim nervous, he didn’t show it He stood, and she resisted the urge to shift herself taller "You have beenof Samorna, and I am here"
"I’m thrilled you could make it," Isabel said flatly
Whatever he had expected from the Shifter, it wasn’t sarcasm His eyes flicked away from her face, then back, and he scowled "You should be thrilled Can’t you feel horong it is to protect the one you should be fighting? I knew you once, Shifter You loved me"
"I don’t love," Isabel said, but a flash of memory told her it was a lie She had loved hi boy so brave it o, and the brave young boy was older and bitter and carrying a deadly grudge
Heits back with a callused hand "I was a child, and I thought you loved me You saved me for this day--so I could take my throne back"
"Indeed? Then where have you been, all this time?" She ry
He heard the anger--she could see that--but it didn’t frighten hiun Sarswiss Lafin Six or seven of the nable mountain fortresses I ot nervous"
Six or seven--and many more probably knew The breadth of the conspiracy took her breath away Oh, Rokan…
Rokan She spun around, concentrating on the stone wall After aup the stairway in flickers of red and white, trailed by the two guards who normally stood outside of his bedcha vision at all; she was sensing the heat e on the stairs and were hesitating, not sure which way she had gone
She turned to the would-be assassin, her heart pounding "How did you get to the dukes?"
"You broughtsteps backward and rested against the wall "And then you left You were…you were hurt, I think It didn’t look like you were hurt, but I think you were" He watched her closely "You knoho I aht She uncrossed her ar it almost masked his relief "Yes It’s all clear now, isn’t it? It’s ti," Isabel said "Not his"
Kaer slaave hi him to flee the realer That hy he had come to her woods: for protection fro to her first That ht her here For a moment Isabel wished fiercely that Kaer had just killed Rokan and never sent it
And of course, Rokan couldn’t explain to the Shifter that she was protecting hi
Her heart ached for hih the walls He was headed down the corridor in the direction of this rooers were curled told her he was holding a knife, though her heat-vision couldn’t see the weapon
She was at the door in a flash, pushing it silently closed She turned, putting her back to the door, listening to the footsteps draw closer She had to shift her ears to ood; itto Kaer
"What do you plan to do now?" she said
His head ca in that movement--in the way the black hair flew back, the jaw jutted, the eyes flashed--was so fa before she ever met Rokan
She couldn’t kill him Never had been able to Even the first tiht, when she let hi a decision But there had been no decision to make
"You knohat I plan," Kaer said "To kill the ie flared within her But it died just as suddenly, leaving her empty Behind her, on the other side of the door, the footsteps paused and then kept going
"You should be helping me" Kaer pushed himself away from the wall "Me--not him! You’re my Shifter You have to help me win my throne back"
"I am your Shifter," Isabel said The words were oddly easy to say
He crossed his arms over his chest "In the woods you saved his life"
He was staring at her the way Rokan so Warily It cut more deeply, now that she understood how unnatural it was for a prince to look at his Shifter with suspicion in his eyes
Now that Rokan no longer looked at her that way
"Stop it," Isabel said so fiercely that Kaer blinked She stepped toward him "Where were you, when I needed a prince to protect? What reason did I have not to believe hi on my throne by now, too, if not for you"