2_-_court_of_mist_and_fury_a_-_sarah_j._maas

I was not a lying piece of traitorous filth. Not even close. Even if Rhys … Rhys had
known I was his mate.
While I’d shared a bed with Tamlin. For months and months. He’d known I was sharing
a bed with him, and hadn’t let it show. Or maybe he didn’t care.
Maybe he didn’t want the bond. Had hoped it’d vanish.
I’d owed nothing to Rhys then—had nothing to apologize for.
But he’d known I’d react badly. That it’d hurt me more than help me.
And what if I had known?
What if I had known that Rhys was my mate while I’d loved Tamlin?
It didn’t excuse his not telling me. Didn’t excuse the recent weeks, when I’d hated
myself so much for wanting him so badly—when he should have told me. But … I
understood.
I washed the dishes, swept the crumbs off the small dining table between the kitchen
and living area, and climbed into one of the beds.
Just last night, I’d been curled beside him, counting his breaths to make sure he didn’t
stop making them. The night before, I’d been in his arms, his fingers between my legs, his
tongue in my mouth. And now … though the cabin was warm, the sheets were cold. The
bed was large—empty.
Through the small glass window, the snow-blasted land around me glowed blue in the
moonlight. The wind was a hollow moan, brushing great, sparkling drifts of snow past the
cabin.
I wondered if Mor had told him where I was.
Wondered if he’d indeed come looking for me.
Mate.
My mate.
Sunlight on snow awoke me, and I squinted at the brightness, cursing myself for not
closing the curtains. It took me a moment to remember where I was; why I was in this
isolated cabin, deep in the mountains of—I did’t know what mountains these were.
Rhys had once mentioned a favorite retreat that Mor and Amren had burned to cinders
in a fight. I wondered if this was it; if it had been rebuilt. Everything was comfortable,
worn, but in relatively good shape.
Mor and Amren had known.
I couldn’t decide if I hated them for it.
No doubt, Rhys had ordered them to keep quiet, and they’d respected his wishes, but …
I made the bed, fixed breakfast, washed the dishes, and then stood in the center of the