Page 68 of Crown of Darkness
The color fades from Lucere’s cheeks, but I see a faint smile on Thiago’s sultry mouth.
I step closer. “From the moment I have arrived in this court, you have greeted me not as a fellow royal but as an enemy to be held with contempt. You have insulted me. And you have sneered at my relationship, but let me assure you, I do not see you as a threat. I pity you instead.”
“Howdareyou?” she demands.
“I dare because I have held my tongue until this moment,” I reply, “because at least one of us remembers their manners.”
“Princesses,” Kyrian chides. “Let’s not accuse anyone of any wrongdoing unless we have proof.”
She makes a move toward me, her face absolutely furious, but Corvin snatches her arm, and when she turns on him in a rage, he stares her down.
“No,” he says softly. “Whether she was involved in this fire or not, we will not offer anything less than courtesy, nor will we—”
“She wasn’t involved,” a soft voice says.
All of us turn our heads.
Imerys stands with her arms wrapped around herself, her eyes soft and aching. “She saved my life, Luce. All I could think of was Gossamer, but the princess came in after me. She warded the flames away so we could get out.”
Lucere’s color mottles. I think she’d probably setmeon fire right now if she could.
“Your Highness!” someone calls.
We all turn, which is the problem when four of you have spent your life listening to that title.
Finn staggers around the corner of the main tower, carrying someone in his arms. There’s a guard beside him, hauling another guard.
“They’re all asleep,” Finn says. “Just lying there. Like this.”
And I finally see what’s in his arms.
It’s Eris.
Her dark lashes remain soft as they shield her eyes, and her arm hangs laxly so that her fingers almost brush the ground. Nearly six feet of solid muscle and contained rage, and at that moment she’s so still I don’t know if she’s even breathing.
I shove past Lucere, my blood running cold. Finn carries Eris with ease, but I can’t help reaching for her.
Eris of Silvernaught doesn’t do vulnerability. To see her sprawled bonelessly in Finn’s arms feels like the last shock I can take for the night.
“Is she all right?” I demand.
Healing is a gift in my bloodlines, though I’ve never spent time studying the art and I’m too tired to even access my gifts right now, but the pulse in her throat remains steady beneath my fingers.
“Asleep.” Finn frowns as he lays her on the cloak Thiago spreads on the ground. “Wake up, Eris.” He taps her cheek.
Her head lolls to the side, and in that moment—if she wasn’t wearing the firm leather body armor she lives in—she’d almost look like the sleeping fae princess of the tale.
“E?” There’s an odd tremor in Finn’s voice.
“Let me.” Thiago kneels and lays his hands flat on her chest, closing his eyes. Wind swirls around him, rifling through his thick dark hair, and a faint white glow hums around his hands as he tries to heal her.
He opens his eyes as the glow around his hands fade. “I can’t rouse her, though there’s nothing wrong with her. There’s a… silence within her. An emptiness.”
Thiago never reveals his vulnerability in company, but the muscle in his jaw tightens.
“There are more,” says the guard, who lowers his friend to the ground. “They’re all like this. Just… asleep.”
Lucere’s expression tightens, but I meet her eyes.
