Page 144 of Crown of Briars
Gerard.Hearing the bastard’s name on her lips made me want to shove my fist through a wall.
And she wrote back to him… What else had she said in that letter? How much she yearned for him, too?
“I told you before, and I will say it again,” she said, drawing even closer. “I have taken no lovers since we were wed. Not even through correspondence.”
I sneered at her. “You think that’s what I’m worried about? This pathetic human lover? I’m concerned for mypeople, Sybelle. Take whatever damn fool you want to your bed.”
The words tasted like ash in my mouth. Just the idea of another man in her bed filled my blood with fire.
But I forced myself to say, “How long did you know about the armies?”
She sucked in a breath. A beat of silence passed before she answered in a timid voice. “I received the letter a few days after the wedding.”
A rumbling snarl worked up my throat. “And you decided to keep this information to yourself?”
“I was still searching for the source of the shadows! You weren’t telling me anything! If you had just been honest withme?—”
“Oh, so this ismydoing? I was supposed to share my deepest secrets with the human I had just met?”
“No, but you could have damn well told me why I was here in the first place!”
“You know I couldn’t!” I roared, the firelight flickering as my shadows thickened. “I could not tell youanyof it, Sybelle!”
She stepped closer to me. “You could have told me you needed me to protect your people from the shadows. You could have told me you neededhuman blood. You could have given mesomeinformation, Varius. But you’ve been lying from the beginning. Ever since that contract between our kingdoms was created.”
“I didn’t write the contract.”
“No, but you carried it on. You kept up the ruse. I may have deceived you, but you deceived me, too.”
She had closed the distance between us, our bodies now only inches apart as she glared up at me. I knew I needed to step back before I lashed out and hurt her.
Before I could move, however, she said, “Cut me, and I will swear it.”
I blinked. “What?”
“Use my dagger to cut my hand. I will swear on my fae blood that I’m not lying. That I’m no longer loyal to my court. I am loyal toyou, Varius.”
I could only stare at her, shocked by her words. A vow with fae blood was sacred and unbreakable. Even if she could lie as a human, she would not be able to fabricate something like that.
As if to prove how serious she was, she reached to her thigh and unsheathed the dagger hidden there. She pressed it into my hand.
“You—You would swear such things?” I whispered.
“Yes.”
Her gaze was steady as she held mine. She did not flinch. She did not waver.
“I will not cut you.” I thrust the hilt of the dagger back into her grasp.
Her lips thinned. “Fine. Then I’ll do it.”
“Sybelle—”
But she had already pressed the tip of her blade into her palm. Crimson blood beaded from the wound. She lifted her hand, her expression fierce, and said, “I, Sybelle of the Earthen Court, swear by my fae blood that I am no longer loyal to the Earthen Court, but to my husband and the Shadow Court. I swear that I did not collude with the Earthen Court to invade the Shadow Court.”
My breath caught in my throat as the air hummed with power, proof that her vow was magically binding.
Mother of Shade, she’d actually done it.
