Page 152 of Curse of Darkness
Thiago reaches for his water flask, surreptitiously turning away to hide his erection. “What the fuck are you doing here?” A heated light flashes through his green eyes. “We’re not supposed to be seen together.”
I shoot him a look.
Is this meant to placate her?
“She already sees me as the aggressor,” he says calmly in my head. “She’s never going to trust me if I suddenly play coy with her.I burned that bridge when she tried to put her hand on my thigh in Ravenspire when we visited. Smile, Vi. Make friends. Do what you do best. Be empathetic.”
“Don’t worry,” she retorts, her dark eyes blazing in return. “It’s not going to look like we’re conspiring.”
Tucking her arm through mine, she leads me across the side of the courtyard. Thiago looks like he wants to follow, but I shoot him a hard look. “Stay out of it.”
And then I turn my attention to her. “What’s going on?”
“One could say the same to you. I saw you there last night. Iknowyou were there. With that… that….”
“The Dream Thief.”
Her face pales, and she turns away, rubbing her knuckles against the fabric of her skirts. “That monster.”
“He’s hardly a monster.”
She turns on me. “He wasn’t inyourdreams, was he?” A bitter laugh escapes her. “Oh, don’t worry, Iskvien. I’ve been warned most soundly about betraying you. I’m aware of the cost.”
My stomach sinks. If she’s talking about betrayal, then it’s because she’s been thinking about it.
She laughs again, a wretched sound. “Do you know, you almost fooled me? With this talk of friendship. But you’re exactly like the rest of them. Threats and more threats—”
“I didn’t threaten you.”
She shakes her head as if I haven’t said a thing. “I should have known better.”
Oh, that’s rich. “I didn’t threaten you! Nor did I ask the Dream Thief to do so. It’s quite telling, Lucere, that the second you feel pressure, you threaten to tuck tail and run.”
“Who’s running?” she retorts, folding her arms across her chest. “I could go to your mother. All I’d have to do is insist upon Imerys’s freedom in exchange for telling her everything that’s conspired between us. Or maybe I don’t have to go that far. Maybe all I have to do is vote against you today.”
I rear back.
Everything that she’s done…. “You’ve been playing us both all along, haven’t you?” On one hand I could almost admire it. “It’s a bloodless means to get what you want. You’d prove yourself loyal to her. She’d no longer have to hold Imerys over your head.”
“You’re supposed to be talking me out of it,” she snaps.
Those aren’t the words of a woman trying to threaten blackmail. They’re the words of a woman who’s drowning, clinging to the only hint of salvation she can find.
And I feel that.
I’ve been there, desperately missing my husband, trying everything to think my way through the mess I was landed in. The only difference is that I had Thalia and Eris to keep my head above the water. I had Finn and Baylor, rock solid at my back.
I had Amaya to help shore up the cracks in my heart.
And while Corvin is devoted to his sister, Lucere’s hinted that her grandmother alienated her from everyone within her family and court. A means to nurture Lucere’s magic and power and grow her into a queen with the strength to hold her court together, but also the reason why she’s now standing in her court a stranger to her people.
My voice softens. “I’m telling the truth, Lucere. I had nothing to do with last night. I was plucked from my own dreams, plucked from my bed…. The Dream Thief wanted me to hear the prophecy with my own ears. I’m sorry if you were swept up in all of it.”
She wraps her arms around herself, shivering. “What do I do? Your mother’s pushing me to vote against you.”
“Abstain.”
Lucere stares at me.
