Page 130 of Curse of Darkness
I nearly choke on the soup, my eyes threatening retaliation even as I slurp it down.
Right now, hunger is more important than vengeance, but this debt will remain.
“You were reading to me?” I slowly lower the empty soup bowl.
“How did I know that a book like this would bring you back to life?” But he tilts the battered leather-bound cover toward me. “Dukes Are Forever.” His eyebrows shoot up. “I found it on your nightstand.”
“I needed something to take my mind off things while you were gone.” Heat flushes through my cheeks. “Before my mother took Imerys, she sent me several books. She knows a trader who has a Veilwalker on his crew. Someone who can pass through the Veil between worlds. She steals books and rare artefacts from the home world. When our kind fled from the advance of technology that world lost its magic, but the books are…. It’s very romantic, even if I cannot fathom half the terms they use. An icy duke. The wife he was forced to marry….”
“Yes, I have been reading it to you.” Thiago rifles his way through the book. “Two desks were harmed in the making of this book, Vi, I’m pretty sure it’s not the romance you like.”
I shrug helplessly. Out of all the gifts and kind words I received when he was gone, Imerys was the one who understood I needed that escape.
“So guilty,” he says, setting the soup bowl aside. “Look at the blush on your cheeks.”
Sliding his hand through my hair, he leans down and—
“No!” I squeak, turning my cheek to his lips. My mouth tastes like a bird shit in it.
I catch the faintest curve of a smile touching his lips. “Vi, I don’t care.”
“Ido.”
And if he’s trying to kiss me, it’s definitely time to get out of bed.
I wobble to my feet. Thiago sighs and captures my arm, and together we negotiate our way toward the wash chambers.
Where I firmly shut the door in his face.
Somehow, I perform my ablutions on unsteady legs and then I scrub my teeth until all I can taste is mint.
He waits for me outside, leaning back against the wall with his gaze a thousand miles away.
“What’s wrong?”
“Wrong?” His head jacks toward me.
“You’re standing right there, but your mind has gone wandering.” I forge a smile. “Nanny Redwyne used to tell me I looked like that when I was off ‘chasing down Will-o’-the-wisps.’”
“Finn has a theory. I’m trying to come to terms with it.”
Sliding my arms around him, I toy with his hair. “Oh?”
It comes out in fragments. Finn’s theory that Thiago might be able to use Darkyn steel to kill the Horned One. And his utter inability to wield it.
I ease my arms around him. “Maybe you’re fighting so hard to keep Death at bay that innately, you’re fighting yourself.”
“That sounds infinitely wise.” He breathes into my hair, his arms curling around me.
It feels so good to be in his arms. We’ve barely had a chance to catch our breath of late, and I took for granted the fact he’d always be here for me.
Until he wasn’t.
“Maybe because I could be talking to myself.” I murmur, stroking his arm.
Thiago looks down.
I shrug. “It’s been a long couple of weeks.” In more ways than one. “I missed you.”
