A Girl in Black and White (Alyria 2)

He let out an amused breath. “Oh, I promise they’re all taken care of.”

I frowned disapprovingly but then shook my head. I was turning into my grandmother.

His amusement faded, his jaw tightening as he rested his elbow on the back of his chair. “I think you’ve taken us all for fools.”

“I could only hope so,” I muttered, looking the hull over.

“Those cuffs you have on prevent you from doing any magic, so save your strength. You’ll need it.”

I sighed. “I thought we were closer than that, Maxim.”

He only watched me with an unamused stare for a moment. “Your kind disgusts me. Truly. And the fact that you can now rise from the dead is disturbing beyond measure.”

“You only dislike ‘my kind’ because you think we are the ones who cursed your people with that lovely Untouchable gift.”

“I don’t think, I know,” he growled.

I’d hit a nerve there . . .

Apparently a Sister felt scorned by a man from the eastern city Talia ages and ages ago—so long ago I thought it was irreverent if I’m honest—who had been disgusted when he found out she was a Sister. So, she cursed him and his people, that if he didn’t want to touch her out of prejudice then he could never touch anyone but his own—oh, and then she made him fall in love with her. Seemed like overkill to me. But I supposed much of what the Sisters did was just that.

“I didn’t do it, so I’m not sure what your ire is with me. Besides—”

“Do not speak unless I ask you to.”

I shut my mouth, a frown on my lips.

“Now, I’m going to ask you some questions, and you are going to answer. I don’t need your annoying opinions or your insolent retorts in between, understood?”

I clenched my teeth, but after a quick thought I let out a breath and my irritation. Riling him up was not what I needed at the moment. “Understood.”

“I am not your prince, but I am the ruler of this city. Address me respectfully,” he told me as if he were speaking to a disrespectful common peasant.

Now he was just being a bastard.

Annoyance ran through me. It took everything to say it, but say it I did. I learned a little more patience since I’d been here, realizing where my stubbornness had gotten me the last time. “I. Understand. Milord.”

“How are you alive?”

I paused, the anger slowly draining out of me. I hadn’t spoken of this to anyone.

Swallowing, I glanced down at the wooden planks. “Why do you think I was dead? You are clearly mistaken.”

“I assure you, I am not.”

“Look, can we have this chat somewhere else? Particularly with these chains off?”

He stared at me, waiting for me to address him properly.

I sighed. “Milord.”

“No.”

What an infuriating man. “I don’t recall such an event as dying taking place. It must have been a different girl you’re thinking of. It wouldn’t surprise me with the way they go about willy-nilly with knives—”

“This falls under annoying opinions.”

“I don’t know what to tell you, milord. I am alive. As you can clearly see.”