Page 7 of Curse of Darkness
“During one of the years when your mother stole your memories, you birthed a child,” he grates out. “She’d be a little girl of about eight or nine now….”
I can’t breathe.Amaya.
Instantly, there’s a knife at his throat. Eris bares her teeth. “Who did you send? Vi, this has to be a decoy. Finn?”
“On it!” Finn bolts toward the door.
For all that I’ve never been fond of my stepbrother, I have to concede he’s brave enough to look her in the eye as if she doesn’t hold his life in her hands. “What’s going on?”
I raise my hand, and the doors slam in Finn’s face.
Something’s not right here.
And if anyone is stealing into Amaya’s rooms, they’re going to be very surprised to meet Grimm.
“Who else is here in the castle? Who did my mother send?” I stalk toward him as my thorns circle his boots, curling up his calves. “If you lie to me, I promise I will make this so slow you’ll beg for my mother’s mercy.”
They circle his throat, and Edain finally breaks a sweat as he lifts his chin and stares at me wild-eyed. “There’s no one else in the castle. I came alone. Mother of Night, Vi. What the fuck is going on?” His gaze darts between us, and then his eyes narrow. “I just told you that you have a daughter…. But you…. Youknowyou have a daughter?”
One of my thorns strokes across his lips and he freezes.
“My mother stole my memories, but they’ve been returning. Yes, I know.”
“And you just left her there?” he explodes.
Wait. Andraste claimed she swapped the babies at birth and sent my daughter to live with Old Mother Hibbert in secret. But he wouldn’t know that. Which means… “My mother has a little girl with her, doesn’t she?”
He nods, pushing a curious bramble aside. “Can you fucking call them off?”
It’s not a threat against Amaya.
I wave my thorns to retreat and they skitter back to the crevices they’ve made in the stone floors.
“Eris.”
Eris slowly lowers the blade and arches a brow at me.
Everything happened so quickly. We discovered the truth about Amaya and set off to rescue her, but I’ve been so shrouded in grief ever since that I haven’t thought through the repercussions.
My mother has a little girl at her side who she thinks is her granddaughter.
An innocent orphan who was switched with my child.
Oh, fuck.
The doors to the room suddenly open.
I swing toward them, then freeze when Amaya steps inside the room, hugging Grimm under the shoulders so his body drapes toward the floor. He looks about as pleased at this as I can imagine he’d be, but he suffers it.
“Amaya.” What is she doing here?
I shoot a sharp look at Grimm.
“This was not my idea,” he replies, his voice imprinting itself in my mind.
“Clearly.” This is a catastrophe. “Amaya, you’re not supposed to leave our rooms—”
“Amaya?” Edain barks, staring at her.
