“Did you need something?” Fenix asked.

Rhea was standing in the doorway to his bedroom. It was only a few doors down from her own, but she never saw him in it. This was one of those rare occasions in which he was home at night. She had just come back from meeting with Elea and was too stunned to even know what to say.

“What is it?” He stood from his desk and turned to face her.

Normally, she couldn’t tell what he was thinking, but right now, he actually looked concerned for her.

“Did you know that the king plans to invade Aurum?” she whispered.

Fenix frowned. And that was answer enough.

“You knew,” she gasped. She leaned into the doorframe for support. “You knew, and you’re enabling it.”

“Rhea,” he said calmly.

She held her hand up. “Don’t. I know about the letters. I know about the men and women you sent across the border. I know what you’ve been doing all this time, Fenix.”

“And what is that?” He stuffed his hands into his pockets, all nonchalant, and stared across at her as if he’d truly done nothing wrong.

But her temper was flaring. She had been meek and reserved for so long, but she couldn’t sit back and do nothing about this. She couldn’t let him get away with this.

She stormed across the room, heedless that it was his bedroom, and only stopped when she was right in his face. Well, sort of. He was so tall that she had to look up at him. Plus, he was so built with broad muscles that spoke of extreme workouts that she’d witnessed in her time here. And, suddenly, she wished she hadn’t done this. Now, he towered over her, and she felt so small before him. But her back was made of steel, and her tone was biting.

“You’re a spy,” she hissed.

“So?”

“You don’t even deny it.” She shook her head.

“Why would I deny the truth?”

“Because you’re working for Kael Dremylon! He works dark magic and is invading Aurum to go to war with Eleysia. Elea told me herself that he is trying to build an empire.”

“And how am I helping him do that?”

“You’re running his spy network and delivering key people into the right positions.”

Then, suddenly, his face turned furious. “You’ve been reading my correspondence.”

“You taught me how to do it! Did you think that I wouldn’t use your own techniques against you? How do I know that I can trust you?”

“You don’t,” he spat. “Clearly.”

“Either you’re helping Kael plot a war or you’re working for the Network to stop him. Which side are you on?”

“Not everything is as it seems, Rhea.”

She glared up at him. “Well, you seem like a traitor to our cause!”

Fenix didn’t fire back at her. He just stared down at her with that unreadable expression. She thought he would be livid. She’d gone through his letters and rifled through his belongings to get the information that she needed. She had to be sure that he wasn’t going to turn on the Network…turn on her. She couldn’t be stuck here, living with someone who would just send her straight back to Kael Dremylon. Or worse! That this was a setup for her to start making more bombs for the kingdom. She couldn’t be party to that ever again. Countless lives lost because of her creations. She needed the truth. And she needed it now.

Then, his big, strong hands came up and cupped her cheeks. She stilled under that touch. She had no idea what he was thinking. Was he going to kill her? Snap her neck and leave her behind, as she knew he had done with others standing in his way?

She trembled under that touch. Fear mixed with an emotion she couldn’t identify. Something that writhed hot under her skin and made her cheeks heat. A feeling she’d suppressed and refused to consider.

“Rhea,” he whispered like a prayer.

She managed to still entirely at that one word out of his mouth. Then, his lips were on hers. She gasped, and he took that as an invitation. He caressed her tongue with his own and claimed her lips. He pulled her tight against his chest. And, for a second, just a split second, she forgot everything, except the taste of him. The familiar, woodsy scent of him that clouded her thoughts. Those muscles and that body and that feeling creeping its way up and out of her like a fire-breathing dragon.

Then, she yanked back and slapped him hard across the face. “How dare you!”

Her hand stung. Her pride more so.

She had never slapped anyone in her life. Especially not for a kiss that made her feel so many warring emotions.

She was not like Cyrene. She had never kissed boys for fun, growing up. She had only ever kissed Eren. And he had died…because of her. That wound was too fresh.

Fenix couldn’t possibly heal it so soon. No matter what he made her feel. Whatever raw emotions she’d never experienced with anyone else coursed through her. Eren was six feet under because of her, and now, another man was standing in his place.

A mask slipped back into place. The spy who could hide anything. “Maybe it is you who are not who you seem, Rhea Gramm,” he said slowly and surely. “Your head tells lies to your heart. I might be a spy, but I know my own allegiances. You should figure out your own.”

He slipped past her, out of his own room, and she heard the front door slam shut behind him. The only indication that she had hurt him.

She sank to the floor, unexpected tears filling her eyes. She had been so certain that Fenix was the bad guy and so angry with herself for feeling for him anyway. But, now…she felt as if she had messed it all up.

And she didn’t know where that left her—in the Network and in her heart.