Page 18 of Promise of Darkness
Surprisingly, the Destroyer of Nevernight shuts her mouth when the prince’s cousin speaks, even though she could crush Thalia like a glowwyrm.
“Back on your leash,” I say through a smile.
The Hallow looms ahead of us, thirteen standing stones erected on the top of the hill.
The prince lets his horse drop back to my side, and both Thalia and Eris fall back in some unspoken agreement.
Subtlety at its finest.
“Save your breath,” I cut in. “You’re charming, but it doesn’t make me trust you an inch. Quite the opposite, in fact.”
He glances at me. “What would make you trust me?”
“Set me free. Return me to my mother’s court unharmed. Release me from this mockery of a treaty.”
“I will.” When my gaze jerks to his, he smiles a little. “In three months’ time.”
“I hate you.”
“You don’t know me.” There’s something sharp in his voice.
“I don’t intend to know you. Why are you doing this?” The question has been irritating me all day. “You said I have nothing to fear from you. That you wouldn’t touch me unless I willed it. Then what do you get out this entire arrangement?”
“Besides picturing the look on your mother’s face every time she thinks of me?”
“As much as I think you’d enjoy that, I highly doubt you’d have put your kingdom on the line just to spite her.”
“You don’t know me that well.”
I glance at him. It’s true. What I’ve heard has been less than flattering, which is typical, considering it came from my mother’s court. The Prince of Evernight is both demon and nightmare, his name spoken in hushed whispers, just in case their words traveled to him on the wind. They called him the Usurper or the Prince of Darkness.
There have always been seven Seelie kingdoms ruled by queens. When Maia breathed life into the world, she left her seven daughters behind to rule each territory. Each successive queen went through the blood rites that tied her to her kingdom and gave her access to the powerful magic of the land.
The war changed everything.
Two of the kingdoms fell: Mistmere and Taranis. Of the five remaining kingdoms, two were left without their queens—or any of the matrilineal lines.
And so the prince rose. A man who had appeared seemingly out of nowhere, serving the previous Queen of Evernight as her warlord before she’d died. He’d won his kingdom through blood and ruin, striking down the queen’s sons and claiming her throne for himself.
And he’d destroyed any who sought to rise against him.
“No,” I say softly. “You’re right. I don’t know you well enough to guess.”
“Do you want to?”
Know your enemy, my mother’s memory whispers in my ear. “Why not? You can start with what you intend to do with me.”
“You’re right. There’s more to this arrangement than I’ve admitted, but the truth shall remain between your mother and me for the moment. It does have the satisfactory side advantage of keeping a knife at your mother’s throat for three months. She won’t start a war when I have you at my side.”
You might be overestimating her fondness for me. “So, I’m to reside in your lands for the duration of the time? Rotting in a prison cell? Or free to roam?”
Or am I to serve in your bed as your concubine? Because if that’s the case, then my mother’s not the one you’ll have to watch.
“Are you sure that’s what you’re really asking?” He glances at me.
“It had better be.”
“You will be given your own chambers, and you’ll be free to roam the castle at will,” he replied. “I don’t intend you any harm. I wish you would believe that.”
