Page 117 of Promise of Darkness
He pushes to his feet, and while I was firmly aware he wasn’t wearing a shirt, the aggression in his stance highlights every flawless inch of him. It’s like the candlelight is doing its best to revere each muscle.
“If the city isn’t safe, then the palace might not be either. We don’t know what those creatures were, or what they want.”
“It almost sounds as if you think I’m stupid.” I cross to the fireplace, warming my hands. “They stepped out of the shadows, Thiago. I doubt they’re going to balk at these stone walls—” I rap my knuckles on the fireplace for emphasis. “—just because they belong to my bedchamber. I was just as safe in the library as I was here. Oh, and you might not know what they are, but I do. Thanks to my little expedition.”
He pauses.
“They’re fetches.”
“I know.”
It stops me in my tracks. “You knew.” I hold my arm up, “You didn’t think to tell me?”
“I’ve never seen them before,” he snarls. “It wasn’t until I was speaking with Kyrian that I realized Angharad’s set her pack of hunters on your trail.”
“My trail?”
A hint of strain shows around his mouth. “You didn’t notice how they went straight for you?”
I’d been too busy fending them off. I’d assumed—
“Why me?”
Thiago paces. “I don’t know.”
“You don’t know? Or you don’t intend to tell me? Since you’re the Prince of Secrets….”
He whirls on me. “I don’tknow. The only leash they wear is Angharad’s, which means she wants to get her hands on you for some reason.”
Between my mother and the Unseelie Queen, I’m not certain which option is worse. “Do you think Angharad knows I was there? At Mistmere?”
“If she knows you were there, then she knows I was there,” he replies. “And yet it practically shoved me aside to get to you.”
It makes no sense.
I have little enough magic. I’m not my mother’s heir, nor am I likely to be named as such. I’ve never even come face-to-face with Angharad, other than that glimpse of her at the Queensmoot. The idea she even knows who I am is ridiculous.
Out of the two of us, I’d have thought her to be more interested in the prince. He’s powerful, dangerous, and was one of the dominating factors in the Seelie winning the last war and driving the Unseelie Queens back.
He picks up a golden cuff from the bed. “I want you to wear this. It will help cloak your whereabouts and protect you. You might wear the fetch’s mark, but this will muffle your precise location. It’s why I went to see Kyrian.”
I let him close the cuff around my wrist. The filigreed gold is finely woven in the shape of birds and feels warm against my skin, soothing the seeping chill from the fingermarks. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.” With a sigh, he hauls a chair in front of the door and sinks into it.
“What are you doing?”
“Someone has to keep watch, Vi. They can walk through stone walls.” He turns his face to stare through the arches that lead to the balcony, moonlight cutting across those sharp features. “And I refuse to lose you.”
* * *
This time,the dream steals me away to a ruined castle.
Thirteen eyeless sorcerers kneel around a Hallow, chanting, and there’s a black skull with horns in the middle of the circle. I step through the shadows and find myself watching them emotionlessly.
Skirts rustle like dry leaves, and then Angharad appears from the nearest arch, a crow resting on her shoulder. “Well?” she demands.
The fetch bows before the queen. “I have found your sacrifice, my queen. She is marked.”
