Page 74 of Shadows Lost
“Have fun, my cubs!” Jarquinn called out, “I think I’ll pray to the goddess that I don’t have two more patients before the morning sun rises.” He added more quietly, just barely loud enough for my shifter ears to hear.
Chapter 39
IstaredatEmon—no,notEmon.
King Daemon Ash Strider of The West Isles. Ruler of all shifters!
There was so much there that I should have recognized. Gold eyes, a family trait passed from father to son. The termgolden one, the prince of shifters was crowned the golden son. Even his goddess damn name, Emon, was a giveaway, even if it was shortened.
Had I just been blinded by his charismatic compassion? The ease at which he had exposed his soul to me? Was it all a ploy to gain my trust and for what gain?
I swallowed back the sudden rising bitterness.
“It’s not you, it was never you. I blocked your ability to recognize who I was with personal wards put upon me. The moment you entered Finlandia,they broke.”
I frowned. I focused on the one question that mattered. “Why?”
The shifter king looked over his bare shoulder at me sympathetically, pausing before a large wooden door. “Why did I choose to keep the truth from you?” He gave me a sad smile. “Would you believe me if I told you it was because I wished to keep you safe and also selfishly wanted you to get to know the real me and not as the murderous king you already think me to be?”
“That’s not good enough.” I barely kept the hurt out of my tone. “Knowing you puts no more of a target on my back than the one I already have.”
He grunted and pushed the heavy door open. “I wish that were true, little umbra, but knowing me puts you in more danger than you realize.” He stepped to the side, sweeping his arm out to beckon me to enter. “I am sorry if I hurt you from my omission.”
“No you are not.” I spat, irritated that I couldn’t say that he did not hurt me. I smoothed down the gold layers of fabric I wore before gliding into a room that looked much like a private study.
Two exits were on the back wall leading out to a large balcony where gauzy gold fabric stirred from the coolness of the night breeze. The exits framed a floor to ceiling black stone fireplace that was roaring with warmth and light. Lavish rugs of all colors were strewn about on the floor, absorbing the warmth from the fireplace and yielding comfort against the otherwise white stone walls.
Two leather chairs faced the fireplace and on the adjacent wall, was an enormously long and elegantly carved live edge desk that looked like a tree had just laid to rest here in this very room. Books lay scattered across its polished grain, some open, as if someone had been frantically looking for answers.
“Even still it was never my intention.” He continued.
I looked up to see his imploring concern, the same expression he held the night we buried the cù-sìth together. I gritted my teeth at the annoying way my heart fluttered. Had it not learned its lesson yet?
“Even you can admit you never would have come here knowing who I truly was.” He shut the door.
I shrugged indifferently, the opposite of the way I was feeling. “I never did want to come here.” Without him…I stopped the words from tumbling from my treacherous mouth.
Emon grunted. “Yet you are here. How? And with a faeling?”
I spun and faced him. “Fate.” I said snarkily.
Startled gold eyes searched mine and I held my breath at the shocked silence, recognizing that my words had caused a crack in the barriers I had made to protect myself.
I flicked a finger in his direction, hardening my voice. “Enough of this, it is you that owes me answers, shifter. Not the other way around. Stop asking the questions and start answering them.”
Shaking his head, he laughed. “I have not forgotten. Get comfortable and settle in. We are going to need a few drinks for this. At least I do.” He turned away towards a bar cart in the far corner of the room.
Instead of taking a seat in one of the large leather chairs near the fireplace, I perused the books scattered on his desk, my fingertips skimming the thick dust covering their pages. With the amount layered here, whoever left it this way was in a hurry, and was gone for a long time.
I glanced at Emon's turned back where he poured a drink, already knowing that fae was him.
Why would he have left his kingdom for so long just to find me?
Frowning, I tilted my head to read the titles. The History of the Blood Wars, The Accounts of the Blood Fae, The Sanguine-Blood Lands, Transformations of Fae, Faerie and Its Creation…my hand stilled on one in particular.
“The Unaccounted Life of the Last Shadow Fae.” I read it out loud, my voice hoarse.
A glass of amber appeared in front of me and I took it, glancing at him, noticing he was sipping from his own drink and staring at the book with admiration in his eyes.
