Page 116 of Curse of Darkness
I can end it all.
I have the power to obliterate Adaia and her court now.
Finn stills. “No,” he says softly. “I don’t believe that. Iwon’tbelieve that. You don’t harm the innocent. You don’t bring ruin down upon those who don’t deserve it. And if you’re having a moment of crisis where you think you might go to those lengths, then Iwillstop you.”
I rake my quivering hands through my hair. “I can’t help thinking that if I’d killed Adaia all those years ago, then Vi wouldn’t be lying in that fucking bed—”
“That’s horseshit, and you know it.”
“I swore I would protect her—that I’d protect this kingdom, and every fae in it—and now we’re facing a war wecan’twin.”
Tension slides through him. “Don’t doubt your generals.”
“I don’t.” But all I can see is Eris lying still on a bloody battlefield, and Baylor torn to pieces. They will give and give and give, and they will die because the numbers standing against us are too great. “Three armies, Finn. We both know the odds facing us. The only way….”
If I take out Adaia now, then Asturia crumbles.
“You could unleash me,” whispers that night-dark voice in my mind.
“Never,” I snarl back.
“There has to be a way,” Finn says. “You taught me that.”
“I spent years watching Adaia strip her memories from her. Years watching Vi fight not to lose herself. She nearlydied. Because of me. Because of my father, her mother, all the—”
“Because she’s a queen who is stepping into her power for the first time, brother.”
What?
“Don’t you take that away from Vi,” he growls. “She knows the risks she accepted the second she married you. She knew what it meant when your father landed on those battlements. Vi’s no warrior—hell, she doesn’t have a single bloodthirsty bone in her body—but she will protect those she loves with every inch of herself. You can’t lock her away, Thiago. You can’t name her queen and then try and wrap her in wool.”
“I can’tprotecther.” Not from the world. Not from her mother. Not from… not from me.
Therein lies the crux of the matter.
Not from me.
“How bad is it?” His voice drops to a roughened whisper, courtesy of the scar across his throat.
“I’m fine.”
That particularly stubborn gleam I associate with Finn when he gets in one of his moods lights his blue eyes. “How bad is it?”
I push away from him. He’s right. I’m not in the sort of mood to be playing to my full strengths. Adaia’s a cunning enemy, and Hawthorn Castle is a trap if ever I’ve seen one. I’m weakened. Furious. Prone to make a mistake.
Finn doesn’t let me go. “You’re not alone. I want you to know that. None of us understand what you’re going through—what you went through. Nobody has ever come back from death before. I get it. You don’t want to talk about it. You want to bottle it all up, lock it all away. Well, it doesn’t work like that, Thi. You’ll explode eventually. So fucking talk to me. Let me help you through this.”
Finn might play the affable rogue, but this is why he’s worth his weight in gold. He doesn’t pull his punches, especially when he knows you need it. The first time we met, he saved my life. Chained as he was to the will of an evil queen, he still fought past the command that demanded he take my head.
In return, I set both hands to the collar around his throat and shattered it.
Freedom.
For both of us.
Freedom and something more…. A bond that can never be broken. A friendship that will never be defied.
He will stop me. Hewillstop me.
