Lir’s smile softened. It was amazing how much it changed his face. He could move from dangerous to innocent in the blink of an eye. Caledonia recalled viscerally how she’d dropped her own guard for that glimmer of vulnerability. It was no more real now than it had been the first night she’d seen it. This time, though, she knew it for what it was.

“It makes us polar opposites. We are the cardinal directions that give this world meaning. You are the rebellion. You’ve made yourself the solitary symbol of hope and resistance.” His smile sharpened and a breeze stirred the shattered crown of his blond hair. “And when I kill you, all that hope will vanish. I will be all that’s left. What will that even look like, Caledonia? I can’t imagine what comes after this.” He shook his head eagerly, as if not knowing excited him.

Then he moved forward again. This time he was close enough to touch her. He raised a hand, but instead of caressing her cheek, he let it hover an inch from her skin. The heat of it skimmed along her jaw, but she remained still, kept her eyes hard as behind her back she tugged at her bindings.

“You’re not afraid.” Wonder made his words soft. “Of course, you’re not afraid.”

“I haven’t been afraid of you for a long time,” Caledonia said.

At this, a low laugh tumbled from Lir’s lips. Without warning, his hand darted forward, gripping the back of her head and tugging her against him. Caledonia clenched her jaw against the pain as Lir bent over her.

“There is another option for us,” he said. His breath was hot against her mouth. “If you choose me.”

She forced herself to look into his star-pale eyes. They had haunted her dreams and more of her waking moments than she should have allowed. She’d only seen them four times in her life, but she could have described them in exquisite detail. The threads of ice that spidered through them. The way the inner rings shattered around the black center of the pupil. It was as if a bomb had exploded in the center of those eyes. As if a bomb had been exploding inside Lir all his life.

Choose him? Choose him.

He was offering her the chance to sit at his side, to save the lives of everyone who fought against him. If she agreed, her submission would crush the spirit of the rebellion she and so many others had fought and bled to build. He wanted her power. He wanted all the Bullet Seas.