Page 165 of Empire of Ash
The rooftop goes silent as we stare at each other.
“I—”
“You don’t need to be embarrassed or ashamed, Ella,” he growls quietly. “Not with me. I saw you by the flame that night, and I knew we’d be friends. Because of how we hold back the pain of the world.”
He steeples his hands.
“I’ve been watching you for a long time, actually. You’ve impressed me for years.”
I shiver, swallowing as I try and piece together what he’s saying.
“I’m not sure I know what you—”
“You’ve never let any of it drag you down,” he growls. “Not even at Hemlock, with those other, cruel girls.”
A chill creeps up my spine.
“How do you know about that?”
He smiles, finishing his drink as he sits back in his chair.
“They don’t have the drive you and I do. My father, Noel… all of them. They say they do, but none of them will actually go the full distance to do what’s necessary when itisnecessary. Not like you and I.”
“Jacob, I—”
“When the world knocked you down, and when he stood in front of you and told you to be quiet, what did you do?”
My lips thin.
“I think we should change the sub—”
“You stabbed him, Ella,” he says thinly. “You put a knife in his side and made the king bleed.”
My pulse thuds
“Jacob I’d really rather not talk about—”
“I stood beside my father foryears,” he growls, his eyes narrowing.
Something is wrong. This isn’t the smiling, joking Jacob Prince I’ve known before. My eyes dart back to the bar cart, wondering if he’s been at it for a while before I even came here.
“I had his back,” he hisses. “Even when he didn’t appreciate it, or when he’d ignore my help and advice.”
His eyes narrow.
“Ella, I know you know what it’s like to stand there ignored, knowing the onesin chargeare doing it wrong. When youknowyou could do it better, if only they’d let you take the wheel. It’s why you stabbed him. It’s why you torpedoed his company by selling those shares to my father—”
“I did both of those things, Jacob,” I say tightly, my pulse thudding. “Because I was angry. Because I was hurting, and in pain, and refused to see that the world could be any other way.”
“No,” he snaps, shaking his head. “No, you can tell yourself that you were just a scared, angsty teenager. But that was yourmoment, Ella!”
I flinch as his fist hits the table.
“That was you seeing and seizing your destiny! Pushing the powers that be in the direction they needed to go. That was you course-correcting when the captain fell asleep at the helm.”
I swallow, growing more and more uncomfortable. I glance around, hoping to see a member of his household staff on the way with dinner, orsomething. But there’s no one.
I frown.