Page 187 of Promise of Darkness
“Really? I had absolutely no idea.”
“The more you channel her power, the greater the hold she’ll have on you,” he warns.
It didn’t occur to me that he’d think the power I was channeling at the Hallow would be hers. As much as I want to tell him the truth, he was the one who considers it mercy to kill theleanabh an dàn.
The truth dies on my lips.
I just need a little time. I just need to convince him that I’ll never do it. I’ll never set them free. The Erlking is enough. I understand the damage they can cause. I’ll tell him. One day.
“I won’t use her power again. I promise.” It’s one I can keep.
I knew what the price would be if I traveled this path. I deliberately ignored his warnings, but what was the alternative? Watch him die? Wake up, many years from now, sobbing in my bed when I finally remember?
No.No.Every lesson my mother has ever given me taught me to fight, and to fight dirty. I’ll deal with the consequences when I face them. Time was always our enemy, and now I’ve bought us another year of it.
But even as I think it, I can’t help remembering the Mother of Night’s words, “You were born to set us free.”
Have I even been the one making these decisions, or is that bitch silently laughing as she steers me in the direction she wants?
I’m so tired and heartbroken I don’t even know.
“We have a year,” I repeat. “And my mother lost. You have the disputed territories and—”
“I don’t give a fuck about the land,” he snaps.
My lips clamp together.
“Now what?” I whisper.
He scrapes at his face, fury still harsh across his expression. I can tell he wants to punch a wall or something, but he doesn’t like behaving like a savage.
The thought makes me blink.
I don’t know how I know that, but I do.
And just like that, the fire in his eyes banks. “We call in my people,” he says. “And start discussing our plan of attack.”
Relief floods through me.We. He saidwe. “You don’t want to dissolve the marriage?”
He looks at me incredulously. “Dissolve it?”
“Since it appears you are married to a monster.” They’re lighthearted words, but even I can hear the depth of emotion underscoring them.
Two steps and he’s right in front of me, though I don’t know if his hands quiver with the desire to put them on me or to push me away. “You’re not a monster.”
Aren’t I?
“Forever, Vi.” His voice roughens. “That was the promise I made. No matter what the cost is. No matter what I must do to keep you. You belong to me, and I to you, until the moon falls from the sky and the tides no longer churn. Forever.”
I remember those words, spoken the night we bound our hands together and married. The memories are still incomplete, broken fragments that slip through at the oddest moment, but some seem seared into my mind.
Until now, I’ve been channeling the exhilaration of the meeting, fueled by fear and rage and exhilaration. But with those words, I want to throw myself into his arms and cry.
I don’t cry. I hate crying.
But for some reason, my eyes grow hot.
And then he’s cursing under his breath and snatching me into his arms.
