Page 59 of Seduced By Darkness
There’s no way he’s good enough to take Finn down.
Finn is part-Sylvaren: the warrior-born.
“The queen’s assassin most likely.” Finn rubs the towel through his hair. He shakes his head at me. “Don’t mistake him for Adaia’s whore. That bastard doesn’t fight fairly. He doesn’t have to. He’s got enough tricks up his sleeve to keepmeon my knees, and he barely had to twitch a finger.”
“If I rip his head off,” Baylor growls, “then he won’t get a chance.”
“Aye, but you’d have to get close enough,” Finn counters, shaking a finger at the enormous general.
Lysander sighs. “It’s always the pretty ones you’ve got to watch. Maybe I can take a tilt at him? He won’t even see me coming.”
“I don’t think so,” Finn mutters. “He’s good.”
Lysander grins. “You never know. He and I shared a moment when we both tried to stalk through the arch to the queensmoot at the same time. He looked like he wanted to murder me. Someone’s repressing all his worst impulses….”
“If Edain’s repressing anything,” Finn says, “it’s violence. Don’t put yourself at risk. I doubt either you or Baylor could take him. Besides….” He tosses the towel to Eris, and then reaches for his shirt, hauling it over his shoulders gingerly. “If anyone’s going to repay the queen’s pet for herkindness, it’s going to be me.”
The sight of his back stalls all conversation.
I suck a hiss of air through my teeth, and Eris’s hands clench in Finn’s towel.
He looks up, his gaze wary.
“Erlking’s hairy cock.” The breeze wheezes through Eris’s teeth as she forces Finn to still, easing the cotton of his shirt away from his skin. “What the fuck happened to you?”
She wasn’t there when Lucidia announced what had been done to him.
“I’m fine.”
Their eyes meet, and there’s murder in Eris’s expression. “You are not fine. Who did this?”
Finn shrugs. “Let us just say that the queen of Asturia has certain proclivities, and they involve a whip in her hand.”
I turn Finn around and the sight of his back does things to me. The welts that remain are still raw. Dozens of them, crisscrossing his skin like mesh. Maybe even a hundred. I knew they were there, but knowing it doesn’t mean it’s easier to accept.
“I’m fine, Thiago,” Finn says curtly. “Nothing that won’t heal.”
“These cut to the bone.” There’s a hollow rage inside me. She did this to himbecauseof me.
“Most of the time, seeing a beautiful woman with a whip in her hand might make a man consider just how far he intends to allow matters to go, but I will admit Adaia’s cured me of any such desires.”
“Lean forward,” I say gruffly.
His gaze cuts to mine. “I’m fine, Thi. They’ll heal. They’ll probably even be gone by sunrise.”
He and his sylvaren blood. The fae heal ridiculously fast and can survive mortal wounds, but he comes from a race of fae that were magically transmogrified by their queen. Every ounce of his strength and power is magnified. His healing abilities are off the charts.
“Get Mariana in here,” I snap at Baylor. “Now.”
The healer’s magic can fix this.
I breathe through the rage. “How did you escape?”
“I didn’t.” Finn’s brow quirks and he turns to the side. “I was rescued by a maid most fair and gallant.” His smile holds an edge. “I tried to woo her, but it seems she’s taken somewhat of a shine to someone else. Princess?”
Thalia steps aside, and I finally realize there’s someone else in the tent.
Iskvien sits primly in a small chair flanking the edge of the tent.
