Page 36 of Song of the Shadow Prince
I shrugged. “I don’t know what to tell you, Damien, other than I don’t know what they wanted. I’m just as clueless as you are.”
He narrowed his gaze to a squint. “I’m starting to believe that,” he murmured. “You really did lose your memories, didn’t you?”
I sighed. “Something like that.”
This was a prime time to tell him I was actually Cat and not Arya, but I was so tired of singing the same song and dance and no one believing me. At this point, I needed to go with the flow until Garrick could find me a way home. That was my only hope. Wasting my breath on anyone else was pointless.
“But with your memory loss came some new skills,” he countered. “You suddenly know how to fight. How do you explain that?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe it’s like xenoglossy. You know, those cases where someone wakes up and can suddenly speak another language,” I offered nonchalantly. “Unexplained phenomenon.”
Damien frowned, clearly not understanding a single word I said. Go figure.
“Either way, I’m not sure what good it did me since those vampires still kicked my ass.” I groaned and rotated my sore shoulder.
“Of course, Arya. Because you’re human. Did you expect a different outcome? You started out well because you caught them off guard. They didn’t expect you to fight, much less fight well. But once the shock wore off, they were obviously going to overpower you.”
His explanation was perfectly logical, but since I’d never fought a vampire, how the hell was I supposed to know? “Do you know much about me?” I asked hesitantly as I leaned my elbows on my knees. “I’m mostly going off of what Maeve tells me.”
Damien shook his head. “I don’t know you well. All I know is that you like to torment Gianna… vigorously.”
I rolled my eyes. “Jesus… Okay, so aside from that, nothing else?”
“Nothing else.”
“A lot of good you are.” I side eyed him. “I would have assumed you built a dossier of the whole family in anticipation of marrying Gianna.”
“A what?”
I sighed loudly. “Nothing. So, are you going to tell me why you ended things with Gianna? All kinds of wild gossip have been floating between the servants at the Ryder residence.”
He seared me with a glare. “And let me guess – you never once bothered to put a stop to it.”
I shrugged. “I’ve been busy. I don’t have time to worry about someone else’s drama.”
“She’s your sister,” he deadpanned.
“So everyone tells me,” I mumbled. “But Gianna is myoldersister, which means she should be able to handle herself. I doubt she needs her little sister to fight her battles.”
With a scoff, Damien stood and dragged his chair back to the desk. “She might be older, but she’s fragile. Besides that, she’s the daughter of a servant. She doesn’t have the same authority you do.”
I laid back down on his bed and made myself comfortable. “Look, I have a lot on my plate. It’s time she toughens up. I won’t always be around to hold her hand.”
“As if you ever were,” he muttered.
“Possibly not, but that’s what you’re asking me to do.” I leaned up on my elbows and stared at him. “I’m no hand holder. You’re asking the wrong person. But I can promise you I’ll never bother her again. That should make things easier for her.”
Damien considered my words, judging whether to believe me or not. I guess he did, because he nodded and approached the other side of the bed. He pulled the fur coverings back and slipped into bed.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m going to bed,” he said casually, giving me his back.
I scoffed. “Are you serious? A few minutes ago, you could barely look at me in a torn dress. Now you have no problem sharing a bed with me? Make it make sense, dude.”
He turned to face me. “Where do you expect me to go, Arya?” he asked dryly. “This prison only has two bedrooms. One for me and one for my uncle. Do you expect me to go sleep with my uncle?”
“Well… yeah,” I casually offered, as if it made all the sense in the world.
