Page 2 of Lady of Darkness
“How scintillating,” Theodore drawls, pouring himself another glass. “Are you going to cut to the chase, or are we going to be subjected to more of whatever nonsense this is?”
I like Theo, too. In a way, I wish we’d all been closer. As they sit here beside me, I realize we probably have much more in common than we think.
“Learn what?” Sterling asks, leaning back, narrowing his green eyes. He’s holding the glass of whiskey with such a tight grip that his fingertips are white. I also take note of the fact that he hasn’t had a single sip.
“How to kill without being killed,” Charles says casually. “How to command the world.”
I snort. “Do you really think English nobility has the power to command the world? No one cares about us. Not really,” I retort.
Charles’s smile doesn’t waver. Instead, he just cocks his head and gives me a withering look. “I’m not speaking of your English nobility,” he says slowly. “I’m speaking to you as the new Lords of Darkness.”
CHAPTERONE
Harlow
One Week Ago
“The Lords of Darknesswill end tonight. The lineage will not continue. You will go into hiding. One thousand years, and it ends tonight.”
“I can’t do it,” I tell him. “I changed my mind.”
Please don’t do it.
“Too late,” he growls.
And then he shoves the entire damn brownie into his mouth.
I scream. Cry. Thrash. Someone holds me back—I think it’s Theo. If Sterling eats those brownies, hewilldie. And I can’t let that happen.
To my horror, the other guys eat a brownie in the blink of an eye, and I scream again. My throat stings from the force of my crying, and my face is wet with tears.
“You wanted to kill us?” Sterling asks. He throws his hands out to the side, swallowing and giving me a look of hate mixed with melancholy. “You got your fucking wish.”
I gasp as I sit up from my bed, one hand around my throat as panic fills me. The entire scene from earlier tonight drags through my mind slowly, each detail imprinted in my memory.
The horror as they all ate the brownies.
The screams I realized were mine.
The way Alaric calmly watched me with a pointed, challenging gaze.
Wasn’t he scared?
Wasn’t he afraid of dying?
The confusion when nothing happened, and the subsequent explanation.
I remember Theo walking over to me, crossing his arms. His normally blue eyes were darker, more expressive. As he scowled down at me, his jaw feathered. He was angry, but there was also something else behind his eyes.
Hurt.
Confusion.
Disbelief.
I think it was the disbelief that killed me. They trusted me, and here I was plotting their death.
“Did you know that certain populations possess something called the AS3MT gene, Harlow?” Theo drawls, licking his fingers. “It’s rare, but our bloodline carries it, likely because we built up a tolerance to arsenic over centuries. Tiny doses over many years… starting from the first year of being initiated.”
