birth, and she was destined to have everything, everything, while I was to live in her shadow, simply because she was the firstborn twin.”
“Do what you will, you cannot change destiny, Selene.”
“You think not?” She ran her fingertips over his shoulder and down the length of one arm. “The Interrogator wants to know the secret of shape shifting. He’ll do anything to make you tell him.”
“There’s nothing to tell.”
Selene shrugged as she spread her hands over his chest. “It matters not to me. I came here to make a deal with you, Hardane of Argone.”
“What kind of deal?” he asked, frowning as her hands slid down his belly.
“I want to be your life-mate, to share the throne of Argone.”
“Such a thing is impossible.”
“Is it?” She pressed herself against him, her hands drawing lazy circles on his shoulders. “I think not. You have only to send Kylene back to the Motherhouse at Mouldour and let me take her place at your side.”
Hardane shook his head, repulsed by her nearness.
“No one else need ever know,” Selene purred, grinding her hips against his. “I look like her. I sound like her. No one can tell us apart.”
“I can.”
“I’m offering you life, Hardane. All you have to do is accept me as your life-mate.”
“You mean all I have to do is betray Kylene,” he retorted. “Make a mockery of the vows we took.”
Selene took a step back. “You would rather die than do as I ask?” she exclaimed, unable to believe he would refuse her.
Hardane snorted softly. “I’d as soon bed a viper as share my life with you.”
She slapped him then, the sound of her palm striking his cheek echoing loudly off the damp stone walls.
“So be it. But think on this, my arrogant Lord of Argone, when she dies an inch at a time at the hands of the Interrogator, the guilt will rest on your shoulders.”
Hardane felt himself trapped in the web of Selene’s gaze as she stared up at him through eyes so like Kylene’s, and yet so different. He felt it then, the same swirling darkness that had permeated Kylene’s bedchamber the night she had vowed to be his.
A mocking grin tugged at the corner of Selene’s lips. “When she lies dead at your feet, remember that I offered you a chance to save her and you turned it down. Will you be able to live with that?”
He couldn’t, and they both knew it.
“Think it over carefully, Hardane,” she advised as she turned away and started down the corridor. “I shall come back in a day or two to see if you’ve changed your mind.”
Chapter 33
Kylene sat on a chair near the hearth, watching as Lord Kray paced the floor of the Great Hall. Sharilyn sat on a low-backed couch, a bit of needlework lying forgotten in her lap, while they tried to decide on a plan of action to rescue Hardane.
Stubbornly, Kylene had insisted that whatever strategy they devised, she be allowed to accompany them.
“No, no, no!” Kray said, wheeling around to face Kylene. “No matter what we decide, your coming along is out of the question. I won’t hear of it.”
“I’m going,” Kylene replied quietly. “Nothing you can say will stop me.”
Lord Kray’s face softened at her show of bravado. “You love him very much, don’t you?”
Kylene nodded, unable to speak past the rising lump in her throat. Ever since Hardane had assumed her shape and gone off to decoy the Interrogator, she’d been plagued with dark visions—faint images of Hardane being abused, tortured, locked in the very cell that she had once occupied in the bowels of the Fortress. He was in danger, hurting and in pain, and she had to go to him.
When Lord Kray and his sons had returned from Chadray two weeks earlier, she had expected them to set sail immediately for Mouldour to rescue Hardane. And that had, in fact, been their intent.
They had formulated several plans: they would sail in under colors not their own; they would hire the Norco-nian pirates to infiltrate the dungeon and smuggle Hardane out of Mouldour; Jared would go to Mouldour alone on the chance that one man would not be noticed; Dubrey and his brothers would disguise themselves as members of the Mouldourian Guard, walk boldly into the Fortress, and spirit Hardane away in the dead of night.
Kylene had thought each plan had merit; Lord Kray had found a flaw in each one. His most convincing argument against rushing into anything was the very real