Page 87 of Curse of Darkness
This time, the smile in Thiago’s eyes is real. “Good to see some things haven’t changed in my absence.”
“Hello, you,” Thalia says, pushing to her feet.
Thiago’s face softens a hint. “Hello, you.”
Thalia simply walks up to him and wraps him in a hug.
Thiago squeezes her tight, his gaze capturing mine. Their relationship is incredibly important to him. He was raised as a bastard, raised as an orphan in Old Mother Hibbert’s magical hut, without a single relation in the world. His father tried to kill him. His mother denied him. And he was forced to kill his half-brother in order to save his life.
Thalia is the one fae who’s always belonged to him. A cousin. Blood of his blood. The only fae who opened her arms and her love to him when he needed it so desperately.
He’d protect them all, for he loves them, but Thalia is the one he’d die for.
And holding her like this heals some of the pain inside him.
“If you ever do that again,” she scolds, closing her eyes and squeezing him tight, “then I will hunt you down in the Darkness, get my demi-fae to tie you down, cover you in honey, and invite a thousand ants to feast on all your tender regions.”
“That sounds remarkably well-planned.”
“I’ve had time to think about it.” She sniffs, wiping a tear from her eye. “Oh gods, I’m going to cry and ruin my face.”
“Didn’t have much of a choice at the time,” he says softly.
Thalia’s grip tightens, and heoofsout a soft breath, before he places a kiss to the top of her hair.
“Erlking’s hairy balls, T.” Finn pushes to his feet. “Give him room to breathe.”
The second Thalia lets him go, Finn wraps him in an enormous hug that I swear threatens to crack ribs. “You ever do that again,” he says gruffly, “and I’ll help her, you know? She won’t need her demi-fae. I’ll fucking hold you down.”
“Good to see you too,” Thiago drawls, slapping his shoulder and moving on.
Eris stares at him.
She’s not a hugger.
Or at least, she isn’t until Thiago hauls her close.
“How’s my favorite menace?” he asks.
“On edge. I need to kill something.”
He laughs. “Save it for Adaia.”
It’s such a throwaway line, but the words echo through me. I flash back to my dreams, to the way I gripped my mother’s hair as I set a knife to her throat.
“We will water the lands with her blood and make the forests grow,”croons the crown.
It’s so clear in my head, it may as well be in the room with me.
By the time I blink out of the vision, Thiago claps Baylor’s shoulder and smiles. Mine is frozen in place, my heartbeat kicking into a gallop.
Only Finn looks at me, one eyebrow arching.
I let my smile soften again, but he’s not fooled. Not at all. So far the bond between us has proven that we share the sensation of emotions, sometimes of touch and vision if we’re both closely attuned to each other, but not thoughts.
I want to be sick.
And he, no doubt, can feel it.
