Page 109 of Rapture's Edge (Night Prowler 3)
Eliana nodded.
D snarled, “If any of you bastards lays so much as a finger on her, I’ll kill you all!”
“Demetrius—”
“No, Ana, I’m not going to let you do this!”
“This isn’t your decision!”
“You should know it will be much worse now that you’re paying for him, too,” interrupted the Queen, still smiling that strange smile, paired now with a withering stare. “It will take much longer.”
It was that smile that finally did it. It hardened something inside her.
In a voice that was cold and iron heavy, Eliana said, “Do. Your. Worst.”
It came from some place inside her that she didn’t know existed, a place devoid of fear or doubt, and the Queen knew the truth of it, as did D, who let out an outraged, deafening roar.
The Queen’s head snapped around. She said to him, “Just remember what she offered to do for you, Warrior. And remember it was before she knew.”
The Queen reached out and seized his hand.
And Eliana watched in horror as the proud, fierce warrior was consumed.
His eyes popped wide, unseeing. His mouth fell open. His jaw went slack. A tremor passed through his chest. Then, with slow, supple grace, he sank to his knees on the floor in front of the Queen and bowed his head.
The Queen closed her eyes and made a low, humming sound low in her throat. She inhaled, long and deep, and when she exhaled it was as if a weight had been lifted from her.
“Winston Churchill once said, ‘A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth gets a chance to get its pants on.’ And you’ve proven him right, Warrior.” She looked down on D at her feet, bare-chested, dressed in another man’s pants, and laughed softly. “Literally.”
“Jenna?” Leander stepped forward.
She turned, glanced briefly at her husband, then finally let her gaze rest on Eliana, and spoke directly to her. “You were right. Truth is an absolute. Even with a minority of one. Or, in this case, two.”
So dry, her mouth, so loud, her heartbeat. And so, so wild, this thrum and chaos in her blood, like a windstorm descending. She tried to swallow and couldn’t. She tried to move and
couldn’t. It was as if someone outside of her was controlling her entire body, some powerful force had ripped away her will and left her frozen. Breathless. Thunderstruck.
“Jenna.” Leander’s voice was firmer.
She looked back at Leander and smiled, a true smile, one that lit her whole face to radiance. “She’s innocent. And so is he. Neither of them are a danger to us.”
The tension in the room relaxed as if a held breath had been expelled. One by one, the panthers who’d retreated Shifted to Vapor and hung there in the silence of the great hall in small, glittering clouds.
“Eliana,” the Queen said, still holding D’s hand. “I apologize. That was a test, one I hope you can forgive me for. I’m not going to harm him, or you. Come here.”
Quaking, that wild hum still singing in her blood, Eliana found the will to move. She climbed slowly to her feet and crossed to the Queen, staring all the while at Demetrius, who was still on his knees, immobile, transfixed.
The Queen held out her other hand. Smiling, she murmured, “Are you ready for Truth with a capital T?”
Again, Eliana’s mouth would not work. Her lips would not form words.
“Don’t be afraid. There’s just something you need to see, if you’ll let me in.” Her gentle smile grew blinding. “Butterfly.”
And so Eliana took her outstretched hand and finally, finally understood.
Truth, like honor and courage and love, does not come in shades of gray. You either have it or you don’t—there is no in between.
Sometimes it takes a lifetime to uncover it, and sometimes it is clear and simple as a sunrise. Also like honor and courage and love, sometimes the truth can be lost, and you have to find your way back to it, crawling over fields of broken glass and dead bodies, your knees and hands bloody and raw, until you get to it and it’s even sweeter than before because of what you suffered on the way.
