Page 24 of Crown of Darkness
“Stay still, Vi,” Thiago commands.
A warm wave envelops me, sliding over my skin from my head to my toes. An intimate little tingle that leaves me breathless.
“What the—?” Andraste gasps and looks down at herself as her hair darkens and tumbles around her shoulders in a messy tangle, smooth leather encasing her shoulders and chest, and then sweeping down over her legs. Her rings vanish. Her skin darkens. And then I’m staring at myself.
Do I really look like such a mess? Today has not been kind.
Lysander skids to a stop, his furious yellow gaze locking on her.
“Her or me, Edain,” I tell my captor. “You’ll only get one chance to save her.”
And I’m betting all my coin—or my life—on a certain little hunch I’ve had for a while.
“Fuck.” Edain throws me aside and dives in front of Andraste as Lysander launches forward.
He took a raging bane for her. Every suspicion I ever had about my stepbrother’s secret fondness for my sister is revealed.
That inky burst of shadow is back, punching into life around the three of them as they collapse in a yelling heap.
“Vi!” Thiago holds out a hand toward me.
I leap onto the overturned throne, but the movement must give me away. Or maybe it’s Andraste’s voice as she screams curses from within the shadow.
Because Lysander shakes his way free of the shadows, his head whipping around him in a rage. And then he stares at me as though he can see right through the illusion.
“Now!” Eris jumps on top of him, trying to tackle his sheer bulk to the ground.
Finn snaps a golden chain onto the collar he wears.
And it might have worked, if he wasn’t so big and strong.
He tows them toward me, shaking Eris free.
Baylor steps forward, driving his sword straight through Lysander’s chest as his brother hurls himself at me. The bane collides with him, and while the enormous warrior staggers back several steps, he doesn’t yield.
“Forgive me,” Baylor whispers, as Lysander roars with pain.
He twists the sword, skewering his brother’s heart.
And they both go to their knees as I stagger into the safety of Thiago’s arms.
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Chapter Five
Imanage to hold it all inside me on our trip through the Hallow, and it’s not until we’re standing safely in the tower at Ceres and the guards have filed out that I turn to my husband.
“You can’t last too much longer?” My voice is so steady I’m almost proud of it.
Thiago tears off his gloves as the Hallow powers down. “Really? We’re going to do this here?”
“Where would you prefer?”
He gives me a look that scorches me all the way from my ears to my toes. “In our chambers.”
I remember what he said to me once.
“We kiss. We argue. We fall into bed. We fuck.”
