Page 116 of Tales of a Monstrous Heart
‘I have debts to pay that cannot be ignored.’ A weight came with those words as the voyav was suddenly occupied with the lace of their collar that the wind had disturbed.
Avoiding that truth. A debt. One that had led them to watch over Emrys like a hawk. To try to warn him of this.
‘Emmaline asked something of you?’ I stopped in the middle of the wood, seeing the pain hidden in the voyav’s expression. They knew Emmaline, and she had asked them for something. Something beyond a blood vow.
The voyav simply gave me an irritated glance over their shoulder. ‘That’s four.’
I didn’t need the answer. Thean had already given it by being here. They had been following Emrys; they knew the things that were happening. Did Emrys see the warning in the voyav’s presence? If Emmaline had commanded them, they had no choice.
You can’t break a dead being’s vow.
‘He’s in danger here,’ I murmured softly, too afraid to speak the words any louder.
‘He’s always in danger, darling, mostly from himself,’ Thean replied. They somehow seemed mortal and exhausted by the revelation before their eyes turned sharp again. ‘Something else you both have in common.’
We’d come to the small clearing where the portal door had formed in that crumbling archway. Only I was rooted in place by the weight of all the truths I’d asked for.
‘Of course, you had to find some other form of bloody trouble,’ came the irritated words from Alma as she emerged from the wood, arms tightly folded across her chest. Re-dressedin her simple dark day dress, errant leaves and twigs in her hair, her cheeks flushed with exertion.
‘Just when I thought my day was looking rather dull.’ Thean crossed their arms, the words were a lover’s purr from their throat, smile wicked. ‘Good morning, darling.’
Alma ignored them, placing her hands on her hips and scowling at me. ‘Why are they here?’
‘Riddles,’ was the only answer I could give.
‘If I’d known you were naked, sweetheart, I would have come sooner.’ Thean grinned, eyes dragging over Alma’s rumpled skirts.
Knowing by the sudden stiffness of Alma’s spine this wasn’t going to end well, I left them to it.
Alma hissed something about disembowelling the voyav, but the rest of the brutal threat was thankfully lost as I stepped into the portal.
It seems like a family trait to desire forbidden things.
Sat at one of the tables hidden deep in the library shelves, I turned Thean’s words over in my mind. The very thin line the Blackthorns had walked. Secrets that had led them to the grave.
I turned the white Verr summoning charm over in my hands, thumb running over the carved runes. Refusing to allow myself to be cowed by them.
More evidence of the Council’s lies. Of Master Hale’s. How they preached there was no darkness in this world to worry about. I couldn’t get that girl’s face out of my mind. The fear in her eyes. Left in the dirt like nothing but discarded waste.
I let the cursed object tumble from my fingers, clattering to the table as I pushed myself to my feet in disgust. Anger coiled tightly in my gut as I gripped the shelves. How foolish I’dbeen to believe any of it. To allow them to keep me locked in that institute, to gorge myself on their lies.
I pulled a few more books about ancient ground curses from the shelves. The sideboard next to me rattling its drawers in question.
‘I’m fine.’ I sighed, turning back to the table and dumping my new collection on top. Then I took all the small soil samples I’d taken in the wood for William out of my bag.
If you look any more forlorn, those mortals will start to gossip,Thean’s words taunted in my memory.
‘Forlorn,’ I scoffed under my breath at the ridiculousness of it. It was just a stupid kiss.
Annoyed I’d let the voyav goad me, I opened one of the heavy tomes to see what lay inside. The thin time-stained pages crackled in greeting. My other hand moved to play with the chain around my neck as I tried to concentrate.
Chaos of the heavens.Emrys’s words whispered through my mind, as soft as any caress. Making me bite my lip. Consumed with the foolishness of that desire. Then came the memory of the alluring scent of him, the teasing bite of his magic as it had run temptingly down my throat in the absence of his lips. Following my unspoken command for more.
‘You need to stop doing that,’ came his dark voice over my shoulder, making me jump.
I turned to see him, regretting it instantly. The dark handsome disarray of him. Like I’d summoned him with the barest thought.
‘R-reading?’ I stuttered, ignoring how my stomach dipped with his closeness, his hand mere inches from my own where they curled over the lip of the table. ‘I thought you were hunting .’
