Page 45 of Curse of Darkness
“I think it manages that aura of ‘keep away’ quite well,” I murmur as he assists me onto the sand. “I also think that’s precisely the effect Kato was going for.”
There’s a hill in the center of the island, though the thick fir trees hide the sides of it.
“Stairs,” Finn says, pointing toward a set of ancient, chiseled sandstone stairs.
“Are you ready?”
Finn secures our packs under a pile of rocks, leaving us with only the necessities. “Always, Vi.”
Pulling my hood over my face, I ignore my racing heart and start along the small path toward the steps.
The forest swallows us whole.
Each step is taking me closer to Thiago.
I have to remember that as the oppressive silence falls heavily over us.
We start up the steps, and it takes me several minutes to realize that what was once rough-hewn sandstone has now become smooth, polished alabaster. A terrace appears. Another. I pause at the next landing, taking note of the marble sentries that linger on the edges. There are thirteen of them in all: six females and seven males.
All of them have been carved to wear what appears to be braided leather armor. Hints of scale mail drape over their shoulders, but it’s the wings that catch my attention.
The detailing on the feathers is so lifelike that if they weren’t carved of alabaster, I’d be a little unnerved at the thought they might simply step off the ledge and turn upon me with drawn swords.
“Darkyn,” Finn murmurs.
Until Lucere told me, I knew little to nothing about the race of creatures that spawned my husband. “You knew what he was?”
“It’s not something he ever spoke of. I wasn’t even aware until…. Well, Eris was the one who revealed it. There was a period during our third century together when she became well-nigh unbearable. She would snap at everyone and everything. She was drinking down in the city, alone. Always off by herself. It was starting to worry Thalia, and so I followed Eris into the Old City one night and spent the night drinking with her.” He shrugs. “I thought it was something to do with her past, and in a way it was. Just… not as I expected.”
He pauses in front of a lethal-looking female who crouches low with a spear in her hand. Cracks spear through the alabaster here, and half her face has crumbled to the ground, but there’s nothing but ferocity lingering in the single eye that remains. “Thiago was in a bad state. We all knew it, though none of us understood it. It started when word came of a creature stirring trouble in the north. Malakhai.”
His father.
“There was some disagreement between the Unseelie queens, with Angharad and Blaedwyn at each other’s throats, and at that time, Malakhai rode at Angharad’s whims. His warband attacked Blaedwyn’s forces, and Thalia was beside herself trying to keep track of him, because all her sources had identified him as a threat. She keeps track of the major players in all the lands, but this Malakhai had appeared from seemingly nowhere. We were discussing whether we’d need to shore up our northern borders. Arguing about fortifications. Our alliance with the goblins. None of us noticed how withdrawn Thiago became until he placed one hand flat on the map table and all the little figures that represented Malakhai’s warriors fell flat. ‘I’ll handle it,’ he said, and then he walked out.”
Finn holds his hands wide. “There was something about the way he said it. His voice was so cold. I swear his eyes were black. And Eris stared after him, her skin turning ashen before she went after him.”
I pause in fascination.
“After that, Eris insisted she’d handle him. But while Thiago seemed to shrug off the incident, Eris didn’t. We were about three flagons down when she finally admitted that several years after she joined our court, Thiago had asked her to kill him.”
“What?”
Finn looks about as pleased as I do with this pronouncement. “Eris was the only one perhaps capable of doing the task. He told her that if the Darkness ever overcame him, then she was to set him free—before he could hurt anyone. She would know it for the black of his eyes, the coldness of his voice, the violence of his choices. He finally admitted Malakhai had sired him, and that he could feel him out there, like calling to like. A threat coming closer and closer, like two magnetic forces drawn to each other. If Malakhai learned of him, then he would come for Thiago’s soul. And the part of Thiago that he fought to repress would surface. He’d no longer be the prince he was. He’d be forced to a lethal edge, given over to the predatory nature of his primal self. Eris was finally facing the consequences of the bargain she’d made.”
She loved my husband—he’d saved her from almost certain death, and for the first time in her life, Eris learned what trust looked like.
To suddenly face the inevitable…. For it to be her own hand that dealt the killing blow, and for him to ask such a thing of her….
He must have been desperate.
He knew how much it would hurt her.
And here I am, asking her to accept the fact that the soul I bring back may not be the Thiago we all knew.
“He needed that failsafe,” he says quietly, “but he’ll never know how much it cost her to agree to it.”
“Oh.” Suddenly, all her recent actions make sense.
