Page 170 of The Dark Lord's Guide to Dating

“I can handle it.”

She turned to stare at Evenfall Manor’s outline wreathed in distant moonlit haze. Her fists clenched on her thighs. “Maybe we should take him back to Skyspire.”

I raised an eyebrow. “You want to drag your father from his estate all the way to the citadel?”

“I don’t want you getting drained in Solandris,” she said, glancing at me, “and I’d rather not rush the inevitable conversation with him.”

It was irritatingly sensible. Another shadow warrior blinked out. “Your call,” I said as evenly as I could manage.

She shot me a look, as if I’d just handed her something precious. “You’d give me that choice?”

“Why not?” I shrugged. “He’s your wretched father, after all.”

Her hesitation broke with a quick nod. “Fine. I want him in Skyspire.”

I slid closer and draped my arm across the back of the seat, letting my fingertips brush her shoulder. “Done,” I told her quietly, letting my voice drop lower. “Whatever you require.”

She gave a short laugh. “Careful, Kazimir. People might suspect you’re turning heroic.”

Obviously, she hadn’t expected me to agree so quickly. But this was a simple matter of letting Arabella direct our next move. She deserved it.

By the time we reached Evenfall Estate’s outer drives, the moon was high above us. My head pounded with savage pain, but I felt that familiar need to protect her from seeing me in agony.

“Maybe I should be grateful your father is such a monumental bastard. Without him, you’d never have found me so intriguing.”

She tipped her head, a smile ghosting across her lips. “If he’d been a decent father, I still wouldn’t have fit in with those Solandrian peacocks. I never belonged there.”

“Their loss,” I said, pressing a kiss to her temple.

The driver brought us to a stop just shy of the gates. I hopped out first, pulling Arabella with me. The hum of our entangled magic circled us. A silly part of me felt proud as my shadows slid across her as if they belonged at her side.

Slipping around the manor’s perimeter was embarrassingly simple. The wards were trifling, and the guards stuck to predictable routes. Two shadow warriors had more than enoughcunning to handle security. The real problem was the possibility of Auremar’s assassins arriving first.

I led Arabella through a narrow side door, the same one I used the night I discovered her father’s suppression runes. He hadn’t improved his defenses even after mysteriously losing one guard. Fool.

The servants’ corridors smelled of cheap brandy and old polish. I caught a sudden wave of memory from my own youth—another set of candlelit halls, another father figure ripe for disposal. I remembered the weight of the sword, the satisfyingthunkas steel met bone, the hot spray across my cheek.

Tonight the ghost of that moment followed me all the way to AtticusEvenfall’s study.

A single guard snoozed in a chair. One flick of shadow around his throat, and his eyes rolled back. He slumped to the floor with a soft exhale of breath. Arabella stepped over him, her expression set.

The door swung open. Evenfall sat behind that atrocious gilded desk. He froze mid-scribble and slowly looked up, going from scowl to full-blown terror as Arabella and I walked in.

“Arabella? How—what are you?—?”

“No theatrics, Father,” she said, her voice crisp. “You’re coming with us.”

I inspected him, letting cold menace hum in my voice. “I recommend you cooperate. The citadel’s food tastes infinitely better if you retain the use of your kneecaps.” My runes flared, cutting through my composure. I fought it, because the Dark Lord did nothunch.

Evenfall shot to his feet and shoved his chair aside. “This is abduction! The king?—”

“—has already sent assassins to deal with you,” I finished for him.

His face paled as that sank in. He tried leveling a paternal glare at Arabella like it might still work. “My dear, you’ve been ensorcelled! This demon corrupted?—”

Her eyes sparked with a swirl of gold and violet. Evenfall’s mouth clamped shut so fast I half expected his teeth to crack.He knew.Those suppression runes were nothing against her now.

“I pledge my loyalty where I choose,” she told him. “And it’s never been with you.”

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