Page 222 of Curse of Darkness
Lysander snorts. “Only you could find the one female who absolutely cannot return any interest in you. I swear you do this to yourself deliberately. You’re going to have the world’s bluest balls.”
“I amnotinterested in Princess Imerys.” Baylor’s face looks like thunder. “I was only seeing as to her welfare.”
“Baylor,” Finn says pointedly, “I can count on one hand how many times you’ve even remembered someone else’s welfare. You are disturbingly single-minded, my friend. Eat, fuck, fight, sleep. Repeat.”
“The Queen of Ravenal is not someone we want to irritate right now,” Thiago warns.
Baylor closes his eyes, as if he’s picturing punching a hole in the wall and then kicking all of us through it.
“Leave him alone,” Thalia protests, circling the table toward Baylor and wrapping her arms around him from behind. “Maybe he’ll break the curse? True love’s kiss does wonders, after all….”
“For fuck’s sake,” he growls.
“That’s not what truly happened,” I can’t help saying. “The Sleeping Princess of Somnus never woke. The thorns surrounding her tower crept across the entire kingdom, and a dark forest overtook the plains. Nobody has ever managed to get in to see if she’s even still breathing. And it’s been a thousand years.”
“She’s still there,” Grimm says in my head, licking a paw at the end of the table where Thalia set a plate of milk on the placemat in front of him. “Though is she still breathing? I guess the true question is… does she still require breath?”
Everyone pauses.
“That’s incredibly creepy, Grimm,” Thalia says with a shudder, returning to her seat. She glances toward Baylor. “And perhaps a little inconsiderate. We’ll break the curse, Baylor. I’ll set my demi-fey to trying to discover anything they know about sleeping curses.”
“Blaedwyn might know something. She owes me a favor. Or three.” Since curses originated in Unseelie, she’d have to know more than we do. “And if not, then the Erlking might recall something.”
“So we’re just going to nip on up to the Erlking’s castle and have a pot of tea with him now, are we?” Finn asks.
Baylor moves his soup out of the way and slowly rests his forehead on the table.
“Oh look.” Finn rubs his comrade’s back. “I think we broke him.”
Slowly Baylor lifts his head. “Where’s Eris?”
Finn’s laughter vanishes as if it never existed. “Didn’t anyone tell you?”
Thalia makes a throat cutting motion behind Finn’s back.
“Tell me what?”
“Eris finally resumed her fae form after the battle,” Finn murmurs. “She wanted some space, so she managed to activate the Hallow and vanished. North. Into Unseelie.”
“And you didn’t go after her?”
Finn’s face blanches. “She didn’t want me to go after her. She made that quite clear. And I don’t know where, exactly, she went. But I’m pretty sure she’s able to kill anything that might come her way in the mood she’s in.”
A moment of silence falls.
Lysander sighs, casting his napkin at his brother. “Good one, B. You just ruined dinner.”
“He didn’t ruin dinner,” Thalia protests. “He has a right to ask. She’s his friend too.”
Thiago laces his fingers through mine. “Eris will return when she’s ready to return. This is her home, and she knows she’s always welcome here.”
“Does she?” I want to believe it, but Eris had her own nightmares. “Grimm.” I kneel down in front of him. “I wish to ask of you a favor.”
“A favor?” The grimalkin stops licking his paw and turns those golden eyes upon me. “You do realize I do not do favors. I expect payment for my services when they’re offered.”
My eyes narrow. “Do you really want me to run up a tally of who is ahead in this game of debts between us?”
His eyes narrow too.
