Page 125 of Curse of Darkness
I laugh.
Right as a half-muffled shriek splits the air.
Instantly, my hand goes to where my sword would usually hang, as something catapults off the roof and slams into a pile of hay near the outer edge of the stables.
Finn holds a hand up, equally as intense. “Me, first.”
Together we stalk toward the pile of hay.
A head explodes out of the straw and then Amaya coughs out a strand of hay. Grimm materializes at her side, looking at her like she’s an idiot.
“Did I not tell you to watch what you were doing?” he sounds half frantic.
“I was watching,” she snaps. “It’s not my fault that stone was loose.”
I can’t help looking up. Fifty feet to the top of the wall if I’m right.
Her mother’s going to wring her neck.
“Princess.” Despite the roughened edge to his voice, Finn puts on what I like to call his court voice as he offers a hand toward the lurching figure in the straw. “Allow me.”
Amaya scrambles out of the hay, desperate eyes raking over me. “I’m fine,” she says, dusting her breeches off.
She was watching us. And she slipped.
Grimm reappears at my feet, his tale curling around my calf. “Careful, now. She’s been having nightmares since your father attacked her. You’ll frighten her if you raise your voice.”
I give him a long look, then focus on her. It’s been so new—this relationship between us—that I don’t know if I should demand to know what she was doing up there. So I try a different tact. “How’s your mother?”
“Still sleeping,” she admits, watching me like a wary animal. “Thalia’s checking on her.”
“What were you doing up there?” Finn barks. “You could have broken your neck.”
She turns on him, hackles virtually raised. “But I didn’t.”
“But you might have,” he snaps back. “You think I’m going to be the one who explains to your mother when she wakes that you broke your back on our watch?”
Amaya opens her mouth… and then shuts it. Her lower lip starts to quiver.
Finn squats in front of her with a sigh. “I’m not angry with you. You scared me. You scared the both of us.” He includes me with a jerk of his thumb. “We’ve lost so much, and while I know you’re struggling to find your place here, I’m asking you not to take such risks. Not right now. Please.”
This is what I should be doing, but I can’t touch her. I don’tdaretouch her. Turning away, I grind my teeth against the pain. Maybe one day, if I get this thing out of me….
“You think I want to return to that dark emptiness either?” Death whispers. “You will never be free of me.”
Maybe it’s better this way.
If I can’t be the father she needs, then Finn….
I can’t even finish that thought.
“No more walking along the edge of the parapet,” I tell her quietly. “Malakhai isn’t the only enemy who hunts the skies.”
“I did remind her of that,” Grimm sniffs.
“I want to learn to do what you can do,” Amaya says. “I was just… trying to watch.”
“You want to learn to fight with a sword?” Finn directs the question toward me.
