Page 19 of Crown of Darkness
Andraste tears her gaze from Lysander. “I thought he was dead. The last I saw him he was buried in the woods near Briar Keep, until rumors came of a beast stalking the northern forests—”
“Andraste.” Edain places a hand over hers.
Clydain. Lysander was going back to Clydain.
Even broken and curse-twisted, he was trying to fulfill his final quest.
“Xander.” Baylor takes another step, his palm soothing his brother’s fur.
He’s not looking at him.
No, he’s looking at me.
The humanity in the beast’s eyes vanishes as amber fury rolls across them. A quiver starts in its shoulders. “Prinshess,” it whispers, and its hackles rise.
“Get these fucking chains off him,” Baylor demands.
Edain tenses. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”
“The problem, whore,” Baylor says, as he tears one of the chains from his brother’s throat. “Is that you think he will fight us. This is my brother. And he is loyal to Evernight.”
“Vi,” Andraste warns with a little shake of her head.
Baylor smiles for the first time I think I’ve ever seen. And his hand grips another chain. “Don’t worry, Princess. His teeth aren’t that sharp. If you have treated him well, then you have nothing to worry about should we unleash him.”
Another chain breaks.
Andraste’s gaze flickers to me.
And then I realize her finger is tracing a pattern on the arm of her chair, over and over again. A symbol of a language the pair of us created when we were seven, so we could speak without any of Mother’s court chastising us.
I haven’t seen that symbol in many years, so it takes a second to realize what she’s—
“Run,” it says.
Grabbing a fistful of his brother’s hair, Baylor turns the bane’s face toward his, completely unafraid. “Hear the whisper through the trees,” he breathes, as his hand curls around the last remaining chain. “Feel the moonlight on your skin. Listen to the thump of her heart.” Both of their golden eyes turn to lock upon Andraste. “You can almost taste it, can’t you?”
“I don’t think we should break his chains,” I whisper, taking a step back as muscles bunch within the beast’s form.
“Don’t worry about your sister,” Baylor assures me with a nasty smile. “It’s not as though my brother will hold a grudge. It’s not as though she tried to kill him.”
And the chain snaps.
But it’s not Andraste the beast lunges for.
It’s me.
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“Traitor!” The bane snarls as it smashes Baylor off his feet.
Thiago is slightly quicker to react, his hand dropping to his sword, but I see a second of conflict on his face—what is he doing?—before Lysander crashes into him.
“Vi!” Thiago yells, staggering backward.
Run.
