Page 139 of Curse of Darkness
She stares in horror at him. “What am I meant to do with him?”
“Here,” Thiago calls, tossing her a golden leash and collar that he’d kept tucked in his pocket. “It seems you’ve found yourself a new pet for your trip to Aska. Follow his lead. Baylor will protect you. Just don’t try and choke him with the collar, or you’ll find out how sharp those teeth truly are.”
Lucere fumbles with the leash, her lip curling in a half-snarl as she cuts Thiago a look. “It doesn’t escape my notice that I’ve effectively got a spy in my party.”
Thiago slings an arm around my shoulder. “We trust you, Lucere.” And then he laughs under his breath. “Because I don’t think you’d dare betray us.”
28
Five hours later, we land in the Hallow right in the heart of the Askan court.
Muraid of Aska awaits our party, one hand resting negligently on her sword hilt. It’s not a threat. The rangy warrior simply lives and breathes the sword, and while her expression gives nothing away, she does incline her head toward us. “Welcome, Your Highnesses. Thalia. Queen Maren grants you safe passage to the Kingdom of Aska and has sent me to bring you to your chambers.”
“An honor,” Thiago announces, clasping her forearm.
The faintest hint of a smile touches her thin lips. “I heard the strangest story. But if you are here to greet me, then clearly, I was mistaken. It’s good to see you again, Thiago.” She turns to Eris. “Silvernaught. Would you care to cross swords if we are granted some spare moments to partake?”
“You’re asking me to put steel in my hand?” Eris can’t keep the surprise off her face.
Muraid grins; a savage smile. “We’ve never danced before. And I have always wondered….”
“Go on,” Thiago says, clearly seeing Eris’s interest. “But the question is, shall she have time? I’m afraid I’m not entirely certain of the program, considering we have been accused of a crime by the Queen of Asturia.”
“If you’re suggesting I betray my queen’s secrets,” Muraid chides him gently, “then you’re sorely misguided. The Queen of Asturia arrived three hours ago. Beyond that, I do not know what the days will bring.”
Mother’s already here.
Thalia arches her brow just slightly.
Nothing has changed about Muraid.
Her shock of white hair is cropped at the sides and longer on top, where it’s been waxed into a stylish quiff. She has the most refined features, strangely delicate for a general with the reputation she wields, and in a certain light there’s an androgynous quality about her. But beneath the smile is steel, and her mismatched eyes—one brown, one green—rake over me as if she’s determined to discover all my secrets.
“You look as lovely as the day you first arrived in these courts,” she says to me, “though power sits well on you also.” She gives a brusque nod. “Be warned, Your Highness. There are those who may not greet you as kindly as myself.”
Etan is at court.
It’s as much of a warning as anything else she’s offered.
I spent two years at the Askan court when I was younger, serving as Maren’s lady-in-waiting. I know now that my mother saw it as a way to remove me from her court and a means to proffer me up to one of Maren’s many male relatives as a potential bride.
But at the time, it felt like being flung at the wolves.
And the biggest wolf of all was Etan, though it took me months to see through him.
Golden and charming, his blue eyes promised me the world even as his tongue twisted lies into being. Lies that I stupidly believed. And I was so desperate for attention—for escape—that I closed my eyes and ears to any hints that aught seemed awry.
It wasn’t until I caught him in bed with a blue-haired sprite that I realized the truth.
I was a game to be played, my heart simply another notch to add to his belt.
And when I defied him, his interest in me only heightened. Suddenly, I wasn’t merely another summer’s entertainment. I became his obsession.
At the Queensmoot where I met Thiago, he pushed Queen Maren into forming a betrothal alliance with my mother. Once promised my hand, when he couldn’t win my heart with it, his smile turned vicious.
“You’re mine, you frigid little bitch….”
I’ll never forget those words.
