“Am I?” Jacks sauntered between forever frozen servants deeper into the stone garden, forcing Tella to follow.
“This relationship isn’t real,” Tella groaned. “How could I be jealous?”
“Maybe you’re wishing it was real.”
“You flatter yourself too much.”
“Only because my fiancée doesn’t flatter me enough.” Jacks’s tone was flippant, yet he didn’t take his eyes off Tella as he propped one booted foot against the terrified stone statue at her side. Then he pulled out a dagger from his boot and began to peel the skin off his apple, as if he’d suddenly lost interest in their conversation.
“You still haven’t told me what you were doing with my sister,” Tella demanded. “I want you to stay away from her.”
Jacks looked up from his knife. “She’s the one who came looking for me.”
“Why would she do that?”
“I promised I wouldn’t tell.”
Tella snorted. “Don’t act like you have a conscience.”
Jacks sliced off the last bit of skin from his apple and took a deep bite. “Just because my moral code is different from yours doesn’t mean I don’t have one.”
“Maybe you should reevaluate it,” Tella said. “By most people’s standards, killing someone is worse than breaking a person’s confidence.”
“Have I killed anyone since you’ve known me?” Jacks ran his tongue along the tips of his sharp white teeth before sinking them into the apple once more. Glowing juice, as red as blood, dripped from the corner of his mouth. Mocking her as he ate.
He acted careless and lazy but he was the most calculating and confident of them all. He probably viewed her the same way he saw his apple, as something juicy to take a bite out of and then discard.
Another drop of red fell from his lips and Tella launched herself at him. She knocked the apple from his pale hands. Then she went for his throat.
His hands went around her wrists in a flash. “You can’t kill me.”
“But I can try.” She kicked at him.
He easily dodged it.
“You’re only going to tire yourself out,” he said calmly. “You already look exhausted. Save your strength to win the game tonight.”
She continued to kick.
He effortlessly evaded her again. His cruel face appeared bored.
But Tella swore she felt the blood rushing through his veins, heating the hands still encircling her wrists. He might have appeared indifferent, but his heart was beating as fast as hers.
Tella stopped mid-kick. His heart was beating.
She stumbled back and he let her go.
“You have a heartbeat.”
“No. My heart hasn’t beat in a very long time. You’re the one who’s delusional now.” His voice was colder than she’d ever heard it, yet the chill it brought did not erase the searing memory of his hot hands around her wrists.
“I might be a lot of things, but I know what I felt,” Tella said.
Only one person could make it beat again: his one true love. They said his kiss had been fatal to all but her—his only weakness.…
“I made your heart beat,” Tella crowed. It was wild and absurd, a truly feral idea. But Tella felt the truth in her heartbeat as well, which now sped up rather than slowed. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. It had never felt so strong. So free. “I’m your one true love. Your kiss can’t kill me.”
Jacks’s scowl deepened. “You shouldn’t believe every story you hear. Do I look as if I’m in love with you?”