He leans back against a tree in my path and regards me under half-lidded eyes. “I bet you heard I was out here throwing a fit and that I’d been ‘monstrous, angry Sel’ all weekend. I bet Nicholas told you we fought again and that Lord Davis put me in my place yesterday. And now you feel bad because you still haven’t told Nicholas that you can generate aether, and you think if you had, maybe he’d realize my instincts were right, and I wouldn’t be out here crushing trees and feeling sorry for myself.”

I sputter, but I can’t deny the ring of truth in Sel’s words. Is that what brought me here through the woods to him? Guilt?

“Move.” I take a step, but he matches me again. His eyes gleam, mocking the thoughts he’d deduced from me like a demonic Sherlock Holmes.

“Well, don’t bother feeling guilty,” Sel purrs. “For our once and future king, the ends will never justify the means. He’s a good person like that. And further, Nicholas doesn’t care about what you can do, he only cares about you. A fact now fully impressed upon the recently disgraced Page Schaefer. As a matter of fact, how do you think he’d feel if he heard you sought me out in the woods while I was drunk on aether?” His gaze hits me all over—sharp pricks across my face, down my throat, and over my bare arms.

Face hot, I flounder for words. “I—I have no idea.”

He snorts. “Liar. Nicholas would draw and quarter me and you know it.”

“That’s a little dramatic.”

He unhitches himself from the tree and stands up, shaking his head. “Do you honestly not realize what he feels for you?”

He’s turning everything around so quickly. I feel a wave of confusing emotions: fury at him still for following me, pleasure at hearing about the strength of Nick’s feelings for me, guilt for being here against Nick’s wishes and our agreed-upon rule, and bewilderment that I’m having boy talk with Sel.

“You don’t.” Sel glares at me, and this close I can see the fine tremor in his mouth, his shoulders, all the way down to his fists. He steps closer, crowding me. “Not fully.”

I back away, but it’s a mistake. There’s only a foot between me, the edge of the ridge, and a steep drop down to the valley and the arena floor below. It’s much too much like our first meeting. And this time I know exactly who Sel is and what he’s capable of.

“Sel, stop it! I’m gonna fall!”

He shrugs. “Only if you move.”

“Let me pass.”

“No. You’re going to stand right here and listen to me explain something to you.”