Page 97 of Promise of Darkness
Surely, I’m not that desperate for company.
“I would love to.”
He escorts me inside, and I can feel the tension in his silence. We haven’t touched since that day. Nor have we kissed. Sometimes he looks at me as if he’s still silently counting how many kisses I owe him, but I haven’t dared broach the subject.
I needed time, and he gave it to me.
The others are gathered in the audience chamber.
“Welcome, my princess,” Finn says, bowing again as if we’re meeting for the first time. I don’t know where he’s been, but it wasn’t in the city.
“Is he always like this?” I ask Thalia.
“Always,” she admits, rolling her eyes. “Finn would flirt with your dead grandmother.”
Eris mutters into her wine, “Though his favorite flirtation is with the mirror.”
Finn shakes his head.
“I can’t quite remember why I missed you, Princess,” he says. “Or these moments where the three of you decide to cast such vile lies upon my innocent ears.”
“Someone has to contain your enormous sense of arrogance,” Eris tells him.
“And that someone is you?” he asks coolly, stealing her wineglass and draining it before she even has a chance to snatch for it. “If you were any other woman, I’d be questioning just what your fascination with challenging my pride is.”
“It’s a good thing I’m not any other woman,” she points out, just as coolly. “And it amuses me, nothing more.”
“Nothing less,” Finn murmurs.
Eris looks like she wants to stab him.
Thalia gives me a quelling look that clearly says we’ll speak about it later and tucks my arm through hers. “We’ve all missed you, Vi. Thiago said you needed time to recover, but I was starting to suspect he’d locked you away so he could have you all to himself.”
I can’t deny her words.
They must assume we…. That everything is back to the way it was.
“I have news,” Thiago announces, as if he’s eager to divert their attention too. “Finn managed to rendezvous with Cian along the borders.”
So that’s where he was.
“And?” Baylor asks.
He doesn’t join the teasing, and I can’t help noticing he sits a little way away from the others.
“Cian claims Angharad is sending her hunters south to search for something calledleanabh an dàn,” Finn says. “She’s satisfied with her progress with Mistmere, but apparently thisleanabh an dànis a crucial step in her plans. She needs to get her hands on it.”
Baylor’s tapping fingers still. “Are you sure that’s what she called it?”
“He’s sure,” Thiago replies.
I wrap my arms around my middle, uncomfortable at the thought of trusting one of the Unseelie. “Can we trust him? What if it’s a trap?”
“We can trust him,” Thiago replies. “His loyalty is to me.” He turns back to Baylor. “My knowledge of the Old Tongue is rusty with disuse. I’m translating it aschild of destiny, but I’m not sure what that means.”
Baylor scrubs at his mouth.
I’ve been trying to avoid him since he arrived, but his eyes shift to me as if he’s aware of it.
