Page 121 of Promise of Darkness
But when I climb the slick stairs, my sister is standing in the middle of the remains of the tower door, looking every inch a warrior princess.
My sister, who has lied to me every bit as much as my mother has.
And suddenly, I don’t want peace.
I want war.
* * *
I’m trembling badlyas I sweep past Andraste into the tower.
It’s all I can do not to look at her, not to vent the rage that bubbles beneath the surface.
In a way, her betrayal is the sharpest blow. I’ve always known my mother never cared for me. It didn’t mean that I didn’t try to seek her approval, but when I constantly failed there was a small part of me that merely saw it as inevitable.
But Andraste….
She was the only one who had my back.
I loved her.
A part of me still does.
And as they say, the sharpest sting of betrayal is the fact it only ever comes from those you trust.
She reaches for my arm. “Vi—"
“Don’t.” I jerk away from her with a snarl. There are a thousand words I want to say to her, but none of them spring to the tip of my tongue. I’m so angry. Furious, even. I can’t put them all together.
“Ah,” says a mocking voice as my stepbrother, Edain, saunters down the tower stairs in all his finery. “The princess awakes.” He spares an insolent smile for Thiago. “Does she love you, yet? Or is she still holding you at arm’s length?Tick tock, Your Highness. You’re running out of time.”
It’s too much.
I don’t even know I’m moving until I drive a fist right into his stomach. Edain goes to one knee with a sharp exhale of breath, his red velvet tunic rumpling and his dark hair tumbling into his eyes. Then his sound of shock turns into a laugh and he slowly pushes to his feet. “I see you’ve lost none of your edge, dear sister. Nice blow.”
“Imissed.”
“You’ve got your mother’s touch for going right for a man’s balls.” The smile on his face seems wrong, somehow. Edain never looks bothered by anything—harsh words slough off him like rain off a roof. But there’s an edge there I never saw before. “I wonder…. Do you have her gift for toying with a man’s emotions?” He looks right past me, the words aimed at Thiago.
It stalls my answer in my throat.
Stops my fist in mid-air.
I know what my mother uses him for. They call him her pet at court and whisper about how he’ll do anything to keep his position.
But I never realized it bothers him.
I used to look up to my sister, and wished my mother turned to me as often as she turned to Edain, but those were the wishes of a girl who’d long been neglected. I didn’t see the poison she drowned them with. I didn’t see the gilded cages they’re trapped inside. Or the puppet strings woven around them.
Perhaps none of us shall escape Mother’s twisted, tangled web without scars.
But I’m the only one who may actually escape her court.
And Edain knows it.
There’s no escape for him. There’s no mysterious prince claiming to be his husband. No gorgeous palace awaiting, filled with the warmth of allies and friends. And Eris, who is neither, if one is to be honest.
Edain will continue to be Mother’s whore, her pet, her lickspittle. And Andraste, who stands in the position I once dreamed of, shall forever bear the brunt of Mother’s nasty little games.
