Page 54 of Seduced By Darkness
Finn sighs. “Sometimes there’s a darkness within him. A distance. You’ll see him staring out over the city as if he sees something else, and you can speak his name but he’s not there. And then it’s like he breaks free of the trance, or shatters the hold of whatever’s got him distracted, and then he’ll blink andhe’sback. The prince I know. The prince I’ve fought side-by-side with. The prince I love.”
Love. It’s such a strange word to hear from a male’s mouth like that.
Finn chuckles. “Not like that, Princess. He’s my brother, in the way that we chose to be family. I love him. I will kill for him. I will die for him. And I will set this world on fire if it tries to hurt him.”
I hate that I’m envious of that. I can’t remember the last time I knew such a concept.
No. I do. I remember my childhood with Andraste. Fingers clasped around a tree as we danced in circles around it, singing ‘The oaks fall down, the oaks fall down….’
Laughing and giggling with her as we rolled in the grass and picked daisies, turning them into crowns we placed on each other’s heads.
I would have died to protect that. To protect her.
But then the night came when Mother caught Nanny Redwyne reading stories to us from the book she’d banned. Stories of the old creatures who ruled Arcaedia before the fae arrived.
The Green Man that made the lands of Asturia bloom long before my mother’s ancestors came to power. Bloody Mara, who protects women against all who prey on them, and whose name could be called three times when one was in need. The Erlking, who ruled the fearful Wild Hunt which rode the forests on Samhain, and yet who could be appealed upon for his justice. His mercy.
Wondrous tales of ancient creatures that made me terribly curious about those who lived here before the fae.
Forbidden tales.
And I asked for them. I begged and Nanny hesitated, but eventually she gave in and slipped the book into my room of nights, where she’d hide it beneath my mattress during the day.
Until my mother suddenly appeared in the door one night, as if she’d been waiting for precisely this moment.
“Since you heed not my royal proclamations,” my mother had hissed as her guards pinned Nanny to the ground, “then it seems I must ensure they are heard by all who see you. Your eyes shall never read such blasphemy again. Your tongue shall not proclaim it. And your ears will not hear it.”
And then she made me watch as Nanny screamed and screamed and screamed while the soldiers removed those offending pieces of her.
That was the night I knocked over a candle and nearly burned half the tower down.
That was the night my fledgling magic snuffed itself out.
And that was the night Andraste was torn away from me, our lessons separated, our rooms moved to opposing wings of the castle.
That was the night my mother first looked at me with cold disdain.
The last time I dared love someone—the last time I wasloved—was eight years ago now.
“Hey.” A gentle hand curls over mine. “Are you okay?”
I let go of the breath I’ve been holding, tears pricking in my eyes. “I was just thinking about… what it would be like to live in a kingdom where you could trust your ruler.”
Finn bites his lip. It feels weird to be holding hands like this with a stranger in the darkened chambers of my mother’s tent. It feels strange to trust him.
But I do.
Instantly.
Even more so than I trusted Thiago—perhaps because Thiago represents a seductive threat to me on some level, whereas Finn is simply… a charming stranger. A likeable stranger.
“I can kidnap you when I leave,” he says. “Put my knife against your throat and drag you out of here and make it clear you’re not coming with me of your own volition.” There’s a sudden twinkle in his eyes. “Maybe it will give you a chance to see if my prince is ‘kind’ enough for you.”
“That sounds like a terrible plan.”
“But you’re tempted—"
I don’t know what it is that alerts me, because there’s no noise. But I have a sudden, wretched feeling we’re no longer alone.
