Page 25 of Crown of Darkness
But right now, I’m too angry to kiss him. If we go upstairs, then he’s probably right. We will end up in bed, but I won’t be distracted. Not this time. “Here is fine.”
He turns to me, all powerful, dangerous grace. “Vi—"
“I held my tongue while Edain taunted me about all the secrets he knows that I don’t. I held my tongue while we were handling Lysander. And I held my tongue in front of my sister and her Asturian guards, because the last thing I want is for my mother to know Edain’s little arrow struck home about your little secret.” I turn to the others, who are hastily scrambling for the door. “Unless, of course, everyone else knows what Edain was talking about and I’m the last to find out? Is this common knowledge?”
Eris pauses. “Not to me, it’s not. I’m as curious as you are, considering that smirking little prick seems to be aware of a threat to our national security, and I’m directly responsible for said security. Baylor?”
He grunts and shakes his head, though his attention is entirely on his brother’s lifeless form.
All three of us stare at Finn.
Finn sighs at Thiago, tugging his blood-spattered vest open. “I told you this was going to bite you on the ass.”
“Finnknows?” It explodes out of me.
“Finn happened to catch his Most Haughtiness at a particularly vulnerable moment,” Finn corrects. “And Finn was sworn to secrecy, despite his objections. Thiago made me swear a blood oath to him before he would tell me what was going on.”
“It’s not a threat to national security,” Thiago says.
“She. Cursed. You. Didn’t she?” Eris leans toward him, a little hint of fire flickering in her dark irises. “Tell me how this is not a threat to national security?”
“I’ve got it under control.”
“How much stress can your wards handle?” Eris’s voice shifts up a level. “Are they still intact? Are those fucking creatures still contained?”
“Yes.”
“What creatures?” I demand, though I know she’s speaking of his tattoos.
He set them free in order to save me once, and I’ll never forget their malicious whispers—or the way they tore a pack of banes into little, bleeding chunks. And he swore he’d tell me what they were, though somehow, we’ve been so busy dealing with the hunt for the crown and my mother, that it never came up.
I hate not knowing. All of a sudden I’m five months into the past, not certain who the enemy is or what secret everyone is trying to hide from me. I broke Mother’s curse, but I don’t think I’ll ever escape the way it made me feel.
Alone.
“Leave us,” Thiago says, cutting them all a sharp glance from beneath his lashes.
Nobody says a word.
Finn helps Baylor lift his brother’s breathless body, and Eris offers me a hint of akick his asssmile before she closes the doors behind them with a telling little slam.
Footsteps ring on the marble outside the chamber, slowly growing quieter with distance.
I wait.
And as I wait, the tension in the room builds.
I have no right to be angry. Maia knows I’ve kept my own secrets from him—and I’m still keeping the most dangerous one of all—but Edainknew.
Thiago watches me silently, though I’m reminded of a caged wolf. There’s no sign of the charming prince I fell in love with. No sign of his usual charismatic cloak. No, this is the warlord I’m dealing with. One with his guard fully up, as if he knows exactly where I’m going to strike and he’s prepared.
“Well?” He throws the gauntlet down the second they’re out of hearing distance.
Where to start?
“What was Edain talking about? A curse? Mother cursed you?”
Thiago crosses his arms over his chest. “It’s nothing.”
