Page 87 of Cursed Shadows 1

His soft hand closes around mine. But his hungry eyes are fixed on Daxeel as he draws me into the Eternal Dance.

Humans, trapped forever in this court, sway and swivel all around me. The deeper into the dance we go, the more the humans weep.

I pay them no mind. To me, they are statues and shadows.

But it’s a battle to fight my own tears as I swallow back the lump in my throat, then let Affay take me in his arms. He holds me close, so close that his mouth is a graze over my temple as he dips his head and whispers, “You surprise me.”

I’m strongly aware of those dark gazes on me, still. Even Daxeel, I think, might be watching me. I know father is, and yet I can’t find the strength to face any of them. Not even Eamon, because I know how he’ll look at me.

My voice is a murmur, “You underestimate me.”

An urgency hushes over Affay’s tone, “Prove your loyalty. Kiss me now as he watches you.”

The ultimate betrayal. The salt rubbed into the iron-daggered wound.

The dance in front of the slighted, shamed and scorned Daxeel isn’t enough to satiate Affay’s hunger for pain. He wants so much more.

Affay’s grin twists against my cheek as he dips his head down, luring out my lips for his. “An act so irreversible to a dark male in love. Words can be healed, but not a kiss—”

I don’t bother letting him finish his attempt to manipulate me. I don’t need convincing. Father has already convinced me enough.

In a blink, I cut off his words.

Silencing him, I lean into his arms and press my mouth against his. It’s a chaste kiss, but firm enough to spread the message through the court to anyone who still watches.

A thunderous crack splits the court.

I flinch and—still trapped in Affay’s firm hold—throw a wild look around. I almost expect Daxeel to be storming his way through the dance towards me, to be snapping necks as he goes.

But I don’t see him.

I see a lot of dokkalves glaring my way, but some, a handful of them, face the wall I’d been standing at when I crushed Daxeel in my fist. There, on the wall, a thick black crack runs up the marble, all the way to the arched ceiling.

And skidding over the floor are the fragments of what looks like it was once a solid gold chair.

Daxeel threw it, must have pitted it at the wall when my lips touched Affay’s.

The sheer strength of it loosens a shuddered breath from me.

It was the wall or me, I have no doubt about it.

Now, Daxeel is gone.

And I’m glad for it, because any moment now I’m about to break. I’ll crack like that wall.

“Delicious.” Affay purrs, so very pleased with it all. “Was I everything you imagined?”

I step out of his hold and turn my gaze up at him.

The tears have started to stir, but I smile something horrible.

I tell my first absolute truth of the night, “I’ve had better.”

19

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‘What would possess me to give that answerto you?’

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