Page 53 of A House of Cloaks & Daggers

“Oh, here we fucking go.” Wren tossed his head back, covering his face with his hands.

Lucais smacked his lips together, nodding at the table. “You let her think you couldn’t evanesce with her.”

Another falsehood. Or half-truth. Or lie by omission.

I looked at Wren, my fingers twitching against the smooth wood on either side of my placemat. He had draggedme across the countryside without sufficient food or water, let a Banshee attack me, and forced me to walk until my heels had bled while he sat his lazy ass on his unicorn.

He pulled his head back, eyes drowsy and half-lidded, and gave me an emotionless, crooked smile. I only had one question.

“Why?”

His smile became whole. “To teach you something so that we could’ve avoided all of this—”

“Have you lied to me about anything else?” I cut in. “Have you left out important details from anything else you’ve said to me or in answers you’ve given to questions that I’ve asked?” Hands braced on the table, I pushed myself out of my chair, my voice rising with me. My book fell to the floor with a thump. “Have you misled me or failed to correct me ordeceivedme about anythingelse?”

Wren didn’t answer.

Because hecouldn’t.

I laughed breathlessly once. My chest felt like it was about to cave in. But my arms were strong, strong enough to hold myself up. “Tell me what it is,” I demanded.

Still, there was no reply.

He stared at me as if the tables had turned, the power had shifted, and it wasmyunapologetic stare pinninghimto his seat. It was only his sheer stubbornness preventing me from getting an answer. His throat worked, and I could see the restraint on his face and in his burning eyes as my conviction dragged the words up, only to become trapped behind his clenched jaw.

“Tell me what it is,” I repeated. And then a thought occurred to me. A new strategy. I lifted my chin, emphasisingmy position in our power struggle. “What are you thinking right now?”

His pupils enlarged, like black holes ready to swallow the gold in his eyes, and his knuckles turned white around two handfuls of the place mat before him.

“Hmm.” Lucais’s voice was a quietly conflicted moan. “Good girl, but that’s enough.”

I whirled on him. “Why?”

He made a similar noise in the back of his throat and pressed his mouth into a tight line.

Laughter trickled out of my mouth. A soft giggle at first, and then a full-blown cackle. “That’s it?” I gasped for breath. “That’s all it takes?”

“No.” Lucais rose from his seat, reaching for me with a hand. “Iwantto tell you—”

“So tell me whatyou’rethinking—”

“Stop it!”

In the blink of an eye, three things happened.

First, Wren’s roar shattered the two rows of empty champagne glasses lined up along the table. It was nothing but sound. The piercing explosions were contained, raining glass down on the spread of food without shooting over the edges of the table where Lucais and I were standing.

Second, he ripped the napery right off the table, taking countless trays and bowls of food with it. Sauce slathered the backs of chairs, grapes spilled out of their overturned bowls and rolled onto the floor, where they landed atop the mess of food and drink and linen.

And third, he leapt over the table, barely giving me enough time to stagger backwards before he rose to his full height before me. Close enough that his chest brushed against my chin as it expanded with each heavy breath.

He backed me all the way up against the window, breathing raggedly, and bent down far enough to place the tip of his nose against mine.

“You have a lot to learn,” he growled, and the menacing edge to his voice raised the hairs on my arms. In contrast, his breath caressed my lips, hot and heady. “The first is that our thoughts are considered the most private part of our beings, and it is an offence against our people to attempt to pry into them. You may take a nice long look at my cock, if you like, but you will staythe fuckout of my head.”

I gulped but showed no other sign of fear—or anything else.

“The second is that most faeries would sooner kill you than sit through a performance like that,” he went on, his pupils dilating. “Listen to me very carefully, bookworm. If you have power, you do not wield it blindly. You do notwieldit at all. Youareyour power. If someone is stronger than you, you will be faster. If someone is faster than you, you will be smarter. And if someone is smarter than you, you will be more determined. You. Rely on nothing else.Youare all that is required here. You. Are.Everything.”

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