Page 18 of Curse of Darkness
“You had three mouthfuls of soup last night for dinner. Maybe a bite of bread with it,” Thalia continues, directing the demi-fae to set the food out in front of me.
I press my finger tips to my temples. “I’ve had a lot on my mind, T.”
She slides a plate in front of me, her voice strangely gentle. “He’d never forgive me if I let you waste away.”
He.
Suddenly I feel sick, tears pricking at the corners of my eyes.
It hits me at odd moments. I’ve been trying to keep busy, trying not to think of him, trying not tohearthat moment his head struck the stone—
“Amaya is worried about you,” Thalia says softly, offering me a grape. “I’m worried about you. We’re all worried. If you faint in front of the court, your mother’s going to think she’s won—”
Grief sloughs away, replaced by a hot, vicious anger so bright it burns. “I hope she does think I am weakened. I hope she dares to make a move toward me.”
I will kill her.
I will ruin her for everything she has ever dared do to me.
She can’t stop me. Not now I have the crown. I will burn her fucking castle to the ground and finish what we started the night we stole it from her—
“Vi.” Thalia captures my wrists, tearing my hands away from the edges of the throne.
Two smoking handprints linger in the polished wood.
And just like that, the anger is gone, leaving me with the image of a burning forest and a castle wreathed in smoke. Of fae screaming as they flee from the town that surrounds Hawthorne Castle.
I shove the grape in my mouth and barely taste it. I’ve been keeping the images at bay, but this one slipped beneath my conscious thought before I knew what was happening.
That’s not my thought.
I would never burn my mother’s castle down.
I would never hurt the people I was raised to protect.
That fucking crown….
The squeezing cage in my chest grows a little tighter. It’s too much. I can’t fight this. Not without him.
I have to.
I have to hold myself together.
For Amaya. For all of them.
“What’s going on?” Thalia whispers, squeezing my wrists.
“Nothing.”
There’s no fooling her. She gives me a pointed look, her right brow lifting. “You nearly set the throne on fire.”
I gesture at the thorns rustling against the walls. “And the entire city is overgrown with thorns. I’ll learn to control it, I swear. But I just need… a moment’s respite.”
“Eat,” Thalia says, crossing her arms over her chest, “or else I won’t tell you what news I bring.”
One grape after the other. And then a slice of peach, even though I barely taste it. I chew my way through the cheese and dry biscuits, suddenly ravenous.
Thalia purses her lips, rifling through her papers as I chew each mouthful. She pauses as she finds the one she’s clearly looking for. “The Queen of Ravenal is here to see you. I’ve been putting her off, but her retinue arrived through the Hallow—without warning—an hour ago. Luckily, Captain Naira was on duty and was able to differentiate between a threat that ought to be subdued and a threat that needed to be escorted to the audience chambers and offered sustenance.”
