Page 99 of Promise of Darkness
“Find the child,” Baylor says, “and kill them.”
“No.” There has to be some other way. “How could we blame a child? It’s not its fault it was born to such vile creatures.” I turn to Thiago helplessly.
He meets my gaze, but there’s no help there. Only cold, implacable resolve. “It’s entirely possibly any child would be an adult by now. They could even be centuries old, though I suspect we would have felt the stirrings of their magic by now if they were.”
Is it any better to kill an adult than a child?
Especially when they’ve done nothing wrong except for having the misfortune to be born to a cursed bloodline?
“Ah, I see. We only protect the innocent when it suits us.”
His lips thin. “If the loss of one innocent can prevent an entire fucking war and stop our worst nightmare from walking this world again, then yes. We could end it, Vi, before it’s already begun. All we have to do is find the child…. I see it as a necessary loss.”
I press my hands on the table and lean toward him. “Well, I don’t. There’s nothing to say this offspring will help Angharad or free the Horned One. What if it uses its powers for our side?”
“Where’s my Asturian princess now?” he demands. “Think with your head, not your heart, Vi. Angharad’s a vicious bloodsucking vulture. She doesn’t need this child’s consent. All she needs is to be able to get her hands on something that has the power and the blood link that can bring the Horned One back and resurrect Hyperion. Innocent or not, I don’t want to take that chance.”
“You know,” I say hotly, “that’s the first time you’ve ever sounded like my mother.”
He draws back as if slapped.
Silence falls across the room.
Even Eris studiously avoids my gaze.
“I may disagree with your mother on most things,” Thiago says in a quiet, deadly voice as he pushes to his feet, “but when it comes to the Old Ones, she and I have very similar feelings. You weren’t born when they walked the earth. You don’t know war. You’ve never lost your entire family to their cults of sacrifice. All you see is a child, a single child, that might stand between an entire world and its fate. Perhaps you should consider that future? Because if we don’t make a small sacrifice now, then what sort of world will that child grow into? What sort of torture and punishment will it know if she captures it?”
I swallow. Hard. “There has to be another way.”
“If you think I wouldn’t take it if there was, then you don’t know me at all.” He turns away from the table, cloak flaring around his ankles as he strides toward the doors.
They slam behind him, leaving me alone with a roomful of his allies.
And a hard lump in my throat.
I’m not wrong.
I’m not.
But neither is he.
To rule is not a gift, one of my tutors once said,but a burden.
“Well,” Finn says, all four feet of his chair hitting the floor as he leans forward, “that was fun.”
“You have a warped idea of fun,” Eris mutters. “It’s not enough to face the Queen of Thorns on one flank, now we have to worry about that pasty bitch in the north and some sort of spawn with the power of the Old Ones?”
“Eris, my love,” he says, lifting her hand to his lips. “While I adore your smile, I’ve not seen it in an age. We’re alive. We know what Angharad is planning in a general sense. And we can stop it. And of course, let us not forget the sheer entertainment gained from watching our mighty prince tremble in the wake of his princess’s wrath.”
I share a look with Eris. “So glad I could amuse you.”
“Oh, it’s not you that amuses me.” He winks. “I’ve watched this play out a dozen times now, and every time, it plays a different tune.”
“Sometimes you shouldn’t open your mouth,” Eris says and rolls her eyes.
There’s a hard lump in my throat. “I think, for once, I’m in agreement with Eris.”
Then I turn and escape the room before my suspiciously hot eyes embarrass me.
