Page 102 of The Darkness Within Us

“Too smart for your own good, as usual.”

“I had to snoop. You’re a mystery, and I don’t like mysteries. I like knowing everything.”

“I can see why I’m so frustrating to you, then.”

“You can’t begin to glean the list of your frustrating qualities, Eryx. Shall I state them for you? I— Ack!”

He ties off another stitch and closes his eyes against my shriek of pain. His face bunches tightly, as though he were trying to fight off a bout of something. Anger? Fury?

At me?

“Tell me why,” I say, needing another distraction.

“Why?”

“Yes,whydid you come?”

He doesn’t say anything, so I continue. “They would have killed me. Then you would have been rid of me finally. No more prodding you to tell me your secrets. No more worrying if I’ll reveal what I know. Youwould have been free of me, had the dukedom all to yourself. I thought perhaps you brought those men here to do the job for you.”

He raises those eyes to mine, stilling the needle before the next stitch. “I am the reason they came, but it was no invitation to do you harm.”

“Then it should have been a fortunate turn of events for you. So I’ll ask again, why stop them? Why expose your abilities to me yet again? You would have had everything you wanted.”

I watch as his eyes turn amber once more. “Not everything.”

I don’t say a word as he does the next stitch, hoping he’ll continue. He says nothing until another whimper of pain escapes me despite my best efforts to hold it in.

“If you don’t know, then you’re not as clever as you think you are,” he says finally.

Is there something he needs from me? Something he can have only so long as the dowager duchess is alive? What am I missing here?

Eryx leans over my arm and blows a long, cool breath over my stinging, raw flesh. “Tell me why you called out a warning, Chrysantha.”

“Excuse me?”

“You told me about the man who’d snuck up behind me. I was already wounded, bleeding shadows everywhere. Did you think to stop me from more pain? Or did you think he might have been able to kill me and want to spare me? He could have, you know. I’m not entirely invulnerable. He could have killed me, and you would have had everything. The manor, the estate, the servants, the money.” A pause. “Your lover returned. It all would have been yours again. The thought had to have crossed your mind, so why call out a warning?”

“You’d just saved me,” I say. “I owed you one.”

“So now we’re even? Next time I’m in danger, you’ll let me die?”

“Yes.”

He smiles, showing off those sharpened canines, and my heart skips a beat at the sight of them. But then he’s back to seriousness and focusing on my stitches once more.

“I’m so sorry that you are hurt, Chrysantha.” His voice cracks, surprising us both. “It shouldn’t have come to this. I never thought Sarkis capable. If I had thought for a second that you were in danger, I promise I would have done something more. I never meant to let my past harm you.”

“Who were those men? Why did they want you dead?”

“Sarkis was in my regiment in the army. There was an incident with the enemy. We were both injured. I threw him over my back and carried him to safety, but he had prolonged exposure to my shadows while my own wounds healed. They flowed into his open injuries.

My mouth rounds into an O.

“He inherited some of my abilities. The supernatural strength and healing. At first, he was glad of it. He liked how unstoppable we were in the army, but he wasn’t as cautious about being seen. The king had a warrant out for his arrest. I was worried that Sarkis would reveal me, too. I tried to put him down and failed. Naturally he turned against me after that. He’s been messing with me ever since.”

I grit my teeth through the next stitch. “And you didn’t think I should know about him?”

“I told you. I didn’t think he was a danger to you.”

---