Page 27 of Crown of Darkness
“Your mother hit me with the type of curse that was designed to incapacitate me and me alone. It’s not meant to weaken me, but to strengthen the daemons inside me. She knows what I am, Vi. And she knew exactly how to try and destroy me from within. If I was weaker, if my wards were simpler, then she might have gotten to me already. They might have broken free.”
“They?”
“These,” he replies, placing his hand over one of his tattoos. “The souls I carry within me. Thousands of years ago they were an ancient primordial race that hunted the night. If they worked together, they would have consumed every mortal soul on this world, but they don’t. They fight among themselves and hunt each other down. The first I knew of them was when I was eighteen and this creature of darkness attacked me. It nearly killed me, but I was drawn to the light within its chest. I… consumed it somehow, and the shadows swarming me evaporated. I could feel it within me though, yearning to be freed. Desperate to feed. It was a constant battle to keep it contained.”
“The Darkness,” I whisper.
“Yes.” His lashes lower, obscuring his eyes as if to hide the flash of hatred I see there. “Others came. I consumed them all. And I began to realize I could sense them out there, because there’s a heart of Darkness within me too. It yearns to hunt for those of its own kind. The more you consume, the greater your powers bloom.” Anguish touches his face. “I was young. I was foolish. I wanted strength. And I didn’t realize that with such power comes temptation. The more you take, the more you want. It’s a constant grinding ache. Hunger. Need.” A little flame flares to life in his dark irises. “The creature inside me grew stronger. Sometimes I would wake in a strange place with no recollection of how I got there, and I would be covered in blood.” He stares at his palms as if seeing something else. “I had to contain it. I had to containthem. And so I went to the Morai, and they told me of a blood mage who might be able to ward it all away within me.”
Until now. “But Mother’s curse is eating away at your wards.”
He meets my gaze. “Yes.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I had it under control.”
“You keep using that word, but I do not think it means what you think it means. That curse has been creeping toward your heart for months and you have it under control?”
“I’ve spent over five hundred years battling this fucking monster inside me, Vi. I am stronger than it is. I am stronger than the souls that rage within me, desperate for release. And I am stronger than your mother’s curse.”
“What happens if it hits your heart?”
His jaw hardens. “I’m not concerned with—”
Stubborn, cursed fool.I stab a finger into his chest. “Well, you should be. You’re the Prince of Evernight, and your kingdom is at war. Your people can’t stand against my mother’s army by themselves. If you die, then she will come for them and she will crush them all, because you’re the only thing currently holding her at bay. And while my mother might be stronger than you are—”
“I didn’t say she wasstronger. I said I threw everything at her that I could afford to throw.”
It momentarily stalls me.
Thiago offers me a savage smile, showing me his forearm again. “I could break through my wards, Vi. I could unleash myself and in so doing, I could crush your mother like an ant beneath my heel, but if I do that then I won’t care who gets in my way. Eris. Finn. Thalia....” His voice roughens. “You. I will kill you all to get at her. I won’t even be myself anymore. I’ll be something else.Someoneelse. And you won’t like him very much.”
I’ve seen it in him sometimes.
Leashed violence. His eyes darkening until there’s no color left in them.
I slip my hands inside his. “I’ve seen hints of him, Thiago. I’m not afraid of your Darkness. And the truth is… whatever lies inside you is stillyou. And you love me. You would never hurt me. Not even your darker side.”
The breath explodes out of him. “Curse it, Vi. You should be scared. You have no fear when it comes to me. I should never have touched you that first time. I should never have—”
I cut him off with a kiss, painting it across his lips.
“You were my salvation,” I whisper against his mouth, because I know what my life was like before I met him. “If you hadn’t kissed me that first time, then I would be nothing now. I would be trapped within my mother’s court, slowly screaming on the inside, dying a little more each day. You set me free. You welcomed me into your arms—into your heart—and I don’t regret a single moment of it.”
There’s no more doubt within his eyes.
Thiago’s hand slides around the back of my neck, hauling me toward him. His mouth slams down upon mine, rough and demanding, full of proprietary claim. This kiss is raw fire, burning all my hesitation and doubts away. I could let him claim me. I could let this be the end of it, but….
There’s just one thing….
One tiny little thing….
“Wait. Wait.” I tear my mouth from his and rest my forehead against his chest, breathing hard.
Gentle fingertips trace my cheeks. “What for?”
He’s told me everything.
