Page 72 of Her Dark Promise

Then she would look up at me as I told her all about my desire to immerse myself with people of different cultures and live a life free from the pressures of being royal.

But was that still something I craved?

I was still sitting as I looked around the room that was still coated in dust: two chairs, two candles, and two stacks of books. Books that were useless in helping me find a way to break the curse and venture outside of these lands.

The stack to my left were the books that I had already gone through multiple times. The middle stack was books that I had given up on. My eyes slid over to the stack of books I couldn’t decipher anything useful either, as they were written ina language that I had no idea how to read, an ancient language long forgotten. Circe could read them, but never taught me.

You never earned the right, she scolded.You had so much promise.

I continued staring at nothing when I heard a shuffling sound from the other side of the door. I hesitantly peeked into the nook, not knowing what I would find when Soren’s face appeared inches from mine.

I screamed and threw my fist out, hitting him directly in the nose, and heard a loud crack.

“What the hell!” Soren landed hard on the ground as his hands went up to his face.

“What the fuck are you doing here?” I looked toward the windows and saw that it was still dark. It would be hours until sunrise. “You should have retired to your room hours ago.”

He looked at me over the top of his hands that were holding onto his now-injured nose.

“I couldn’t sleep, and you never forbid us from the library.” He moved his hands which were now covered in blood to look down and found the front of his shirt drenched in the cold, sticky substance. I could see his eyes roll into the back of his head, and he fell back with a thud.

I stared at him, mouth agape, confused at this entire situation. Would he ever stop surprising me? I knelt down and assessed him: his nose was obviously broken, and with the sound his head made when it connected with the ground, I was sure it had some damage.

He started coming to and blinked up at me slowly as I hovered over him.

“Are you an angel?”

“Far from it.”

“What happened?”

I didn’t respond as I cut my wrist open and held it over his mouth. He was about to say something else, but I used my shadows to enter his mind and assist him in drinking a few mouthfuls. I smiled at him as I grabbed his nose, and before he had time to overthink, I readjusted the bones of his nose back into place.

I stood up, continuing to smile sweetly down at him. The shadows faded from the control on his mind, and as he came to his senses he winced, the pain now apparent.

He breathed through the pain as he looked up at me, still on his back, and said, “You know you are a little sadistic, right?”

I shrugged, dropping the smile.

“So I’ve been told. I must live up to everyone’s high expectations of me, should I not?”

He stood up, now completely healed. He touched his nose and the back of his head, seemingly checking himself for the injuries he thought he had, and asked, “Did you just give me your blood? And did I voluntarily drink it?”

I ignored those questions and instead focused back on the matter at hand.

“I don’t care for the reason why you are awake at such an hour. What I care about is that you stay out of places that are of no concern to you.”

He threw his hands up, exasperated.

“It’s a library! I like to read when I can’t sleep.” His eyes went wide as he peeked over my shoulder. “Wait! What is that room?” He pushed past me, and his eyes quickly roved over every inch of the room before I could move fast enough to pull him from it.

I could see the excitement in his eyes, hear it in his voice. Another part of the mystery that is the Everhart legacy. A part that I would never allow him to be privy to.

I pushed him back with my magic and shut the door.

“I highly recommend you leave now before I do good on my promise and kill you.”

He sighed. “You know, that threat is getting rather old.”

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