Page 41 of The Stygian Crown

Kara pressed her palms into her eyelids until spots swam in her vision.

“It’s a past tainted with blood and vengeance.” History was always trying to repeat itself. Had Urian kept track of his illegitimate child and cleansed them along with everything else of Namirah’s?

“You need time to adjust. This is a lot. I’ll give you some space.” Calim rubbed her on the shoulder and left the room, and the walls seemed to shrink in on her.

The idea that she could be related to Namirah, to thelate king,seemed ludicrous. She glanced up at the portrait again, fighting the shiver that rolled down her spine. It was the eyes. They glittered like the edge of a knife, promising violence. Is that what her eyes looked like when the bloodlust took over? Utterly without warmth?

She forced herself to look away, gaze going to the runed bedposts instead. The hurried strokes were vaguely familiar. The rune forsearchhad been carved into the wood over and over again, the shape and strokes growing cramped as she ran out of space. What had Namirah been searching for? Kara’s eyes widened in recognition of rune variations matching those in the marginalia of her grimoire. The same grimoire Salizar claimed had nothing written in it. That he’d found in the palace.

Mother Night.Kara scuttled backwards toward the door, swiping her hand across the stone until it found the impressions of the rune to open the doorway. The stone groaned as it slid open. Kara fled back through the icy flames.

The library was empty when she returned. She paused to collect herself, then took the opportunity to draw a few eavesdropping runes throughout the room, under rugs and lamps and even inside a few books. On the way back to her room, she stopped by the garden and collected a few smooth stones to key the runes to.

Chapter Nine

Kara spent the next two days in a haze of sleep and drink, trying to quell the creeping sense of dread Namirah’s room and Calim’s theory had seeded in her.

Her eavesdropping runes weren’t working, making her entire plan to take her mind off Calim’s revelations and make progress on her mission a bust. The stones she’d keyed to the runes had yet to glow or rattle or produce any noise whatsoever, even when she refreshed her blood on them. They must require more power than she was producing whilst on the demon’s drip.

She’d expected the potion’s side effects to ease off by now, but if anything, they’d gotten worse. The mark crept steadily across her abdomen. The upper edge of the black sunburst had reached the middle of her ribcage, and it showed no signs of stopping. She began concealing the dark circles crowding her eyes with face powder from the vanity. She was losing weight, too. Her dresses sagged on her frame, and no matter how much she ate at meals, a gnawing hunger persisted in the pit of her belly.

Kara hated feeling so weak, but she was well into the time her keening should have started with none of the usual signs—none of the fine-edged tilting into anger or lust at a moment’s notice. Logan still heated her blood, but at least she wasn’t beholden to the curse. Had Logan’s keening begun yet? Had he already sated it with another? The thought made her itch to hit something.

She wanted to confide in him about Calim’s theory, but staying removed was the only way to avoid getting sucked back into his maelstrom. He would destroy her if she let him.

Kara stared out her bedroom window and watched the sun set on the seven spires, another unproductive day come to its end. She imagined she was a feather floating from the top of a spire down through the air currents, lower and lower, until she settled on the surface of the lake. She wanted to sink. She’d become a player in someone else’s game. Believing Calim felt disloyal to Da—like she was besmirching his memory, but the king’s claims were hard to refute.

Kara carried her glass and carafe of wine to the bathroom and began filling the bathtub with hot water. She sprinkled a sachet of sandalwood-scented powder into the tub, and colored bubbles unfurled across the water’s surface. She let the tub fill till it was nearly overflowing, dropped her robes on the floor, and stepped in. Excess water sloshed over the edges as she sunk down into the water’s warm embrace. She submerged her shoulders, then her head, until only her nose was exposed. She stayed like that for several minutes. Dark echoes filled her ears as the water wrapped around her. She wished she could sink into this tub and float up somewhere else, in some nameless pond, in some nameless place.

Kara lifted her head from the water and forced her eyes open. Steam filled the bathroom, and the musky notes of the bath powder filled the air. There was a dull thud as someone knocked on the door to the bedroom.

“Come in,” Kara called. Merry must have forgotten something earlier, but she wasn’t about to get out of the tub.

The outer door snicked open and closed, and then the bathroom door opened, letting in a draft of cold air.

“Shut the door.” Kara hunched forward and closed her eyes, trying to block out the cold and hide the mark on her stomach.

“Have you any talent for massage? I’m miserably sore.” Her shoulders were bunched into tight knots, and the arm Ariana had sliced open ached when she tried to stretch it. Even the shoulder Patch had put an arrow through, long healed, was bothering her since she’d started the demon’s drip.

A shadow fell over Kara as Merry stepped forward. She gathered Kara’s hair and slid it in front of her shoulders. Prickles tickled Kara’s skin as the expanse of her back was exposed to the air. Warm, calloused hands gripped her shoulders and began to knead. Kara let out an involuntary moan as fingers dug into knotted flesh.

Kara let go of her knees and let her head hang forward as Merry traced behind her ears and down her neck. Strong thumbs began working their way along the column of her spine. Relaxed heat flowed through her muscles. The hands trailing the length of her spine dipped beneath the water and began rubbing the dimples above her butt. It felt divine, but it was odd for Merry to be so forward. And so quiet.

Kara tilted her head back, and Logan’s glowing amber eyes stared down at her.

Kara shrieked and nearly jumped out of the tub. “What are you doing here?!”

Logan smirked. “You told me to come in.”

“I thought you were my maid!”

He let out a dark laugh. “Does your maid have hands like this?” He slid his hands around her back and cupped her breasts in his large paws. He tweaked her nipples, and heat whipped through Kara. She wanted to wrap her hands around his neck and pull him down to her lips, to pull him into the tub with her and coat the floor in water with their frantic movements. No, no, this wasn’t supposed to be happening. She was on the bloody demon’s drip. Kara whined in the back of her throat and slapped the top of the water with her hands.

“You seem frustrated,” he murmured in her ear. His hot breath against the bare skin of her neck sent a wave of heat through her. The ache between her thighs built.

One of his hands slid lower, fingers spread across the taut skin of her stomach. The thick layer of bubbles atop the water hid the black sun staining her skin. Logan paused as he reached the apex of her thighs, asking her a question. He caught her earlobe between his teeth and sucked. Kara’s sex pulsed in response, her hips lifting slightly. A low growl filled her ear.

“Let me give you this. It will help relieve your tension.”

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