Page 132 of Promise of Darkness
I shove him away angrily. “That pretty little speech sounds as though you want me to remember your words when all is said and done. And clearly, I loved you enough to defy my mother. So, yes, I feel some guilt. I need to fix this. Or I’ll never forgive myself.”
Nobody has ever risked their own life for mine.
“Trust in fate, Vi. Maia didn’t grant me a vision of you only to punish us. We were written in the stars.”
“I’m going to hit you with this book,” I tell him, reaching for it. “Destiny is not an answer to this problem. You make your own destiny. It’s the one time I agree with my mother.”
“Any solution we seek is twice as likely to get us killed,” he growls. “We’ve tried everything on this side of Seelie. The only possible means to break the curse are either dark magic, or bargains with eldritch beings, and you know what that means.”
Unseelie.
“So you haven’t triedeverything.”
“It’s not safe to venture into Unseelie.”
My mind starts racing. Normally, I’d agree with him, but this is his potentialexecutionwe’re speaking about, and I don’t share his hopes in my memory. “We could take precautions. Or Eris. She seems to enjoy murdering unseelie creatures.”
“It’s not safefor meto enter Unseelie,” he growls out.
My breath comes slowly. He’s alluded to his past, though he swore he wouldn’t tell me the truth until the curse is broken.
“In what way?” I ask carefully. “Vengeful creatures who’ve sworn to have your head? Or the… Darkness?”
“Both.”
“How dangerous?”
“I couldn’t help you. Vi. Not even to save your life. I wouldn’t be able to use my powers there, for fear they’d overwhelm me. Or for fear that my enemies would feel it and come for me. I would be virtually defenseless.” His face shuts down. “And there’s no point discussing this, for we’re not going to find any answers there.”
Reaching out, he yanks the book out of my grasp.
“The Age of Myth and Magic.” He turns the book over. “If you wanted to know what it was like before the great wars, you could have asked.”
That’s not why I chose the book. “Excellent diversion.”
“I thought so too.” He finds the page I was reading and opens it, his eyebrows almost hitting his hairline. “I stand corrected. You’re not reading about the wars.” He turns the book this way and that, as I try to snatch it from his grasp. “I would say ‘By the Erlking’s hairy balls’, but I see they’re quite well trimmed. And…. Intimidatingly enormous.”
I finally get one hand on the book, but he fends me off with ridiculous ease.
“Give it back!”
“Another bookmarked page,” he teases, rifling the pages. “The Grimm. Not quite as well-endowed as the Erlking, though one can hardly tell with that sword he’s wielding. Are you sure this is suitable bedtime reading, Vi? If you wanted to scratch a certain itch, you should have called.”
“If I wanted to scratch an itch, I’d scratch it.”
His eyes heat.
And I grab the book with both hands.
“Don’t let me stop you.” He tackles me to the bed.
We roll, a motley assortment of limbs and hard flesh. I lose the book, but it no longer matters. Thiago pins me to the bed, wrists held on either side, and I can’t help surrendering.
We’re both breathing hard.
“Is this a better distraction?” he whispers, letting me go.
“Maybe.” I reach up and grab a fistful of hair, dragging his mouth toward mine for a lazy kiss.
