Keres actually looked interested in testing that theory.
I hated him.
Perse pointed at us again.
"Honestly? The most offensive part of this entire conversation is that you somehow convinced yourselves I was a fragile little thing that needed saving."
The words reached me slowly.
Not because I didn't understand them.
Because I did.
Too well.
I stared at her while my brain tried processing everything she had just said.
Because I had spent so long building the rejection in my head that I'd forgotten to question the stones I used for the walls.
The silver poisoning had always been one of them.
Obvious.
Permanent.
Unavoidable.
One day we would find our mate and if she let us close enough to claim her, we could poison her by instinct alone.
That fear had lived beneath my skin for
