Page 155 of Crown of Darkness
“Run,” Thiago says, shoving me into the trees. “There are hundreds of guards swarming out of the castle, and we need to get out of these woods!”
* * *
I sprint through the trees.
Thiago materializes out of the darkness, grabbing my arm. He’s vanished his wings and looks completely seelie again. “This way!”
I told him not to use his magic here. Not to draw attention. “You set heroakon fire?” She’s as bound to that tree as she is to the land.
“Not me!”
“Thenwho—?”
“I don’t know. And we don’t have time to find out. We need to—"
“I can’t leave yet! She must have hidden the crown somewhere. She knew we were coming and she—”
“There’ll be other chances, Vi.” He shakes his head, glancing tersely at the fire. “We have to go. Now.”
To leave without the crown makes my stomach knot. My mother knows what we want now, and she’ll lock that crown away so fiercely that even the light will never get so much as another glimpse at it.
And without it….
I can’t breathe. My feet won’t move.
But they have to.
I let Thiago tug me into the forest, every step feeling as though my boots are made of lead. Torches flare through the trees, and he catches a glimpse of them and then draws me the other way. Toward the east.
Mother knows we need to get to the Hallow if we’re to have any chance at escaping.
But torches gleam through the trees ahead of us too. More guards. They’re coming from every direction.
“Do you trust me, Vi?” He wraps his arms around me.
“Of course, I do.”
Darkness shrouds us both, and I wrap my arms beneath his and hug his shoulder blades as I recognize the whispers in the air around us. Something strokes my skin—
“Such a pretty girl,” it whispers. “So sssoft and fleshy…. So delicioussss…”
Our eyes meet.
“I’m angry, and they call to me strongly when I give in to my emotions,” he admits. And then his jaw locks and the whispers die away. “We’ll have to fly.”
“Can you even carry me?”
Wings appear beneath my hands, and then he spreads them as wide as he can. “Do you doubt me, my love?”
A soft gasp echoes behind us.
My head whips toward the sound, and there’s Andraste, her mouth falling open in shock as she sees his wings.
“You,” he says coldly, stepping toward her and dragging me with him.
“Stop!”
Thiago glances at me, his eyes completely black, but it’s not the Thiago I know. There’s a feral edge to his features. The darkyn prince who wishes to crush the world. “We can’t trust her.”
