Page 97 of The Night Prince

We make the journey through the castle in silence. Callum follows me up the spiral staircase, then leans over me to push the door open. His chest momentarily presses against my back.

Do as he says.

Inside, the candles are unlit, and the darkness lies heavily atop the many books and trinkets within the room. The door clicks shut, and the room feels too small to breathe. Callum strolls toward the window and looks out onto the shadow-drenched mountains.

“You—”

“Why—”

We both speak at the same time. I shut my mouth and allow him to continue.

“Can we trust your brother?” He clasps his hands together, and I get the impression that wasn’t what he was going to say.

“No. He’s rotten. But everything he said about the God of Night. . . Kai has Night’s mark on his chest, and it seems like Alexander worships the God of Night. I think something is going on. What if Alexander is the Night Prince?”

Callum’s jaw hardens. “It doesn’t matter who he worships. If he means to attack my kingdom, if he means to take you, he’ll face my wrath.

He runs a hand over his mouth. When he sets his eyes on me, there’s such pain in them that I almost stagger back. I sigh. “Talk to me, Callum.”

He walks to the edge of my bed and sits down. The small frame creaks beneath his weight. “I cannot get it out of my head,” he says. “Even with everything going on, it gnaws through my skull. There’s no respite. I close my eyes, and I see him with you.”

My pulse quickens at the rawness of his confession. I want to be relieved that he’s finally opening up to me, but it feels unfair. “I cannot get it out of my mind, either.”

He makes a low sound in his throat.

“Not in the way you’re thinking,” I say. “I can’t get it out of my head because ofyou.”

“Why?”

“Why! Callum, you told him to do it.” Callum opens his mouth, but I’m not finished yet. “Your brother took me prisoner. He bound me, and humiliated me in front of a room full of men who would gladly kill me. You could have done something to help me. You sat there, and you watched, and youtoldBlake to do it.”

His jaw hardens. “I told Blake to do it because it was the only way one of us could get to you, to free you.” There issomething defiant in his tone, and he glances at the armoire in the corner of the room, as if he can’t quite meet my eye.

I think back to the moment in the manor house. Blake tapped the table before he approached me, signaling something to Callum. He slid his fingers into my bindings, as if to test their strength.

Callum though. . . it seemed like he was listening to what James was saying. The way he looked at Blake, with suspicion, when Blake was visibly annoyed that James touched me.

Do as he says.

“I don’t believe you,” I say. “I think, perhaps, Blake went through with it because he was trying to free me, but it seemed like you had another reason.”

Callum releases a bitter laugh. “You thinkthat’swhy he kissed you?”

“Enough! Enough with this jealousy! You act as if you suffer, yet it’s suffering of your own devising. You could have challenged James the moment I was brought into that room, but you didn’t. You chose to do nothing. You chose to let it happen. Why? Tell me the truth!”

“I had to know.”

“Know what?”

He puts his head in his hands. “I started to suspect, long before that night, that I had been cursed to want something that could never truly be mine.”

“What are you talking about?”

He drags his fingers down his face. “Do you have feelings for him?”

“What? No!”

“Now who is not being honest? You expect me to tell you the truth when you’re concealing it from me.”

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