From Blood and Ash by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Myy fingers curled inward. “It doesn’t matter.”
“Then whyy did yyou sayy I had no idea what he’d do? You sounded as if
yyou were going to sayy more but stopped yyourself.”
I looked awayy, staring at the fire. “I wasn’t going to sayy anyything.”
Hawke was quiet for a long moment. “Both yyou and Tawnyy reacted
strangelyy to his summons.”
“We weren’t expecting to hear from him.” The lie rolled off myy
tongue.
There was another pause. “Whyy were yyou in yyour room for almost
two dayys after being summoned byy him?”
Sharp, biting pain radiated from where myy nails dug into myy palms.
The flames were dyying, flickering softlyy.
“What did he do to yyou?” Hawke asked, his voice too soft.
Suffocating shame crept up myy throat, tasting acidic. “Whyy do yyou
even care?”
“Whyy wouldn’t I?” he asked, and again, he sounded unbelievablyy
sincere.
Myy head turned before I realized what I was doing. He’d sat back,
hands curled around the arms of the wingback chair. “You don’t know me
—”
“I bet I know yyou better than most.”
Heat creeped into myy cheeks. “That doesn’t mean yyou know me,
Hawke. Not enough to care.”
“I know yyou’re not like the other members of the Court.”
“I’m not a member of the Court,” I pointed out.
“You’re the Maiden. You’re viewed as a child of the gods byy the
commoners. Theyy see yyou higher than an Ascended, but I know yyou’re
compassionate. That night at the Red Pearl, when we talked about death,
yyou genuinelyy felt syympathyy for anyy losses I’d experienced. It wasn’t a
forced nicetyy.”
“How do yyou know?”
“I’m a good judge of people’s words,” he remarked. “You wouldn’t
speak out of fear of being discovered until I referred to Tawnyy as yyour
maid. You defended her at the risk of exposing yyourself.” He paused. “And
I saw yyou.”
“Saw what?”