He knows Things
I turn to look at the darkening sky outside, and another bolt of lightning
spears the clouds.
Hugging myself, I remember what Darius said all those months ago. I’d
suspected it for a while, and I’d seen it when we’d fought the basilisk.
There are rumors that Talan can not only control dreams, but the weather.
I cock my head. “Tell me, Talan. Why would anyone keep a primal
power a secret? Everyone thinks they’re gone from the world, but you
control the weather, don’t you?”
A flicker of surprise crosses his features. “The weather responds to my
magic. I wouldn’t say I have much control, and if I did, I would most
certainly keep it a secret, just like you tried to hide yours from me.”
“Right, because we both know what happened when you discovered
mine. Now, I’m your plaything.”
His eyes glitter like dark jewels, and his gaze sweeps down my body,
then up again. The dark, velvety feel of his magic wraps around me, making
my pulse race. “Not nearly as much as I’d like you to be.”
I stare up at him. “You and I don’t exactly go together.”
“And yet here we are, the only two people in the world with primal
powers. And I think you like me more than you let on. Even if you know
I’m evil down to my bones, some part of you wants a taste of my poison.
Underneath your pretty little uptight farm girl exterior, you hunger for
chaos. You crave adventure. You want the freedom to make bad decisions.”
His voice drops low, and a dangerous edge slides through his words. “And
what’s a worse decision than me?”
I swallow hard, trying to ignore the resonance of his words. After years
of trying to balance my mom’s bank account and make enough rent money
for both of us, sometimes I wanted to break everything. Burn it all down.
“And what led you to that conclusion?”
“You always had to be the
This is more than a mission
I didn’t bring any fresh clothes into the bathroom with me, so I’m
forced to step into the room in my towel. As I walk to the dresser, I can feel
his eyes upon me, though I assume an air of nonchalance. My wet hair drips
down my back and shoulders, dampening the towel, and I yank open a
drawer and grab the first pair of underwear and nightgown I can find. As I
head back to the bathroom, I see Talan pour himself some wine. He’s
making himself at home.
Closing the bathroom door behind me, I discover that I’ve grabbed a
sheer nightgown and a pair of skimpy underwear with black lace around the
waist. The nightgown is also black and utterly transparent, revealing my
nipples through the sheer fabric.
Scanty or not, when I walk out of here, I have to look totally relaxed
and at ease with everything on display. I take a deep breath and imagine that
I’m fully dressed in jeans and a T-shirt.
Opening the bathroom door, I find Talan sitting on my bed, shirtless.
I focus on keeping my shoulders relaxed, my expression serene. But it’s
not what I feel.
Here’s what they don’t teach you in Fey culture lessons when we
practice being at ease with our bodies. They don’t teach you how it will feel
to walk out half-naked in front of possibly the most powerful Fey in the
kingdom, a prince who strikes absolute terror into the hearts of everyone
around him. Or how hard it is to think straight when he’s half-naked, too,
with a body that is perfection itself. Because my brain knows that he’s a
monster, but my pulse is still reacting to the sinuous tattoos of willow
branches that stretch across his finely-cut muscles. I’ve never practiced how
it would feel to walk out like this before a heart-stoppingly beautiful man
whose eyes darken at the sight of me.
His jaw tightens, and that eerie Fey
Hangi tür kitapları seviyorsun?
🔎 Polisiye
💕 Romantik
🚀 Bilim Kurgu
🏰 Fantastik
📖 Klasik
🧠 Kişisel Gelişim
🏛️ Tarih
😱 Gerilim
Good Day?
Cheer up, our Lady of the Lake.” Tana lays her hand on my shoulder.
“It was, all considered, a good day.”
My jaw drops open. “A good day? People died. Raphael has been taken
—”
“But we’ve slowed the darkness’s progress, and we still have hope.”
“Raphael doesn’t.”
“Doesn’t he?” she asks.
Something in her tone eases the heavy weight in my chest. There’s a
playful smile at the corner of her mouth.
“What do you mean?” I ask. “Did you see something? Can you just tell
me, for fuck’s sake?”
“Calm down.” She hands me her deck of cards. “Shuffle them.”
I do as she says, shuffling them with trembling hands.
“Now, pick a card. Just one.”
“This feels more like a magic trick than a reading.”
“It’s a reading.”
I take one card out and flip it. The Star.
“I’ve checked over and over,” Tana says. “Always the Star. Past and
future. And that, I’m certain, is Raphael. The card represents healing and
the connection to the universe, someone in tune with the creative force. If
he were truly doomed, that’s not what we’d see. His light would be
dimmed. Raphael has been taken, that’s true. But you can save him. You
can get him back. And his light will return to us.”
Against my better judgment, I feel hope rekindling in my heart. “Are
you sure?” My throat is tight.
She touches my cheek. “You are the Lady of the Lake.”
I bite my lip. “That sounds so formal.”
“How about Aqua Bitch?” Serana grins, joining us. “That’s better,
right?”
“Aqua Bitch?” Tana asks, scandalized. “What nicknames do you have
Emotions
He arches an eyebrow. “With most people, you tell them what they want
to hear. You’re not always quite so flattering with me.”
“Well, Raphael, I worry that if your ego gets any bigger, it will need its
own magical realm.”
He leans closer to me. “But why is it, exactly, that I am the only one to
whom you show your real self?”
My heart is beating faster. “Because there’s no point pretending with
you, is there? I heard what you thought of me. Trash was the word that got
me, actually. You referred to my mother and me as trash. Yes, this was a
long time ago, and no, I’m not over it. I overheard everything. And I don’t
blame you, not after one of my mother’s spectacles, but I don’t see why I
had to be included.”
After all this time, I can’t quite believe I’m letting it all out.
He sits back. “I never said that. I wouldn’t have.”
My chest tightens. “But I remember it. Right after mother got drunk
again. She was falling down the stairs, and you had to help carry her back to
our room. You had already stopped speaking to me…” I’m dangerously
close to mentioning our kiss, and I really don’t want to betray how much I’d
thought about that single kiss over the past ten years, and we already know
I’m terrible at lying. “Anyway, you’d stopped speaking to me. But Mom
was drunk, and you and your rich friend helped carry her to our room at the
château. And the next day, I overheard you talking to your posh friend about
how we were trash.”
“I wouldn’t have said that.”
Anger flickers through me. “Not in English, but in French. ‘Des
ordures.’ One of you said, ‘People like us don’t spend time with people like
that,’ and the other one said, ‘Yes, isn’t she trash? She and her mother.’”
He nods, frowning. “Ah, guilty as charged, in part. I did say, ‘People
like us don’t spend time around people
What Happened?
He takes a seat in a high-back leather chair and folds his arms. “Why
don’t you report in detail how you helped the fugitives reach us?” He still
sounds like he doesn’t believe me. After all, what could garbage like me
possibly know?
I sigh, growing flustered. “I was having birthday cake at a restaurant. I
ordered lavender, but they brought blackberry—”
“I mean report the relevant details.”
“Fine.”
He lifts a finger. “Hang on, you were celebrating your birthday by
yourself?”
I glare at him. That’s right, I’m a giant loser on top of everything else.
“I’m on vacation by myself, yes. Not that it’s any of your business—”
“From what I remember, you spend a lot of time on holidays,” he
murmurs.
“Do you want me to report or not?” I say sharply.
I suppose I don’t need to tell him that my days of having luxury
vacations are over, that I spent five years eating store-brand cereal to save
up the fare. And tempting as it is, I will not tell him that he ruined five years
of careful planning by kidnapping me. “If you must know, Raphael, I saw
the demi-Fey through a restaurant window. By the time I realized who they
were, someone was watching us, and I was guilty by association. There
were Fey soldiers marching around. The fugitives looked terrified, and I
hate when people are scared.” My mind flickers with a memory of Mother
screaming that bugs were crawling on her skin. I clear my throat. “So I
pretended to be a tour guide and that they were my group. And I led them to
the docks.”
“And that was it? You just jumped in and brought them to me?”
“It wasn’t that easy,” I snap. “A member of the group panicked and ran.
Vena was separated from us, and the Fey soldiers slit her throat. That’s why
I didn’t want you to leave the others behind. They’re executing people in
Let's go Free them
She’s holding the pistol wrong. Even I know that. It’s too big for her, made of shimmering black metal, with a barrel nearly a foot long. Better suited to a trained soldier rather than a shivering, slight teenage girl. A soldier, I realize with cold clarity. A Silver. It’s the same kind of gun a Sentinel shot me with, so long ago in the cells deep beneath the Hall of the Sun. The bullet felt like a blow from a hammer and went straight through my spine. I would’ve died if not for Julian and a blood healer under his control. In spite of my ability, I raise my hands, palms open in surrender. I’m the lightning girl, but I’m not bulletproof. But she takes this as a threat instead of submission, and tenses, her finger itching too close to the trigger.
“Don’t move,” she hisses, daring to take another step toward me. Her skin, the dark, rich color of blackwood bark, offers her perfect camouflage in the forest. And yet, I see the red bloom beneath, and the tiny scarlet veins webbing the whites of each eye. I gasp to myself. She’s Red. “Don’t bleeding think about it.”
“I won’t,” I tell her, tipping my head. “But I can’t speak for him.”
Her brows furrow in confusion. She doesn’t have time to be afraid. Shade appears behind her, solidifying out of thin air, and wraps her up in an expert military hold. The gun falls from her grasp, and I snatch it before it can hit the rocky ground. She fights, snarling, but with Shade’s arms firmly locked behind her head, she can’t do much more than sink to her knees. He follows, keeping her firmly in hand, his mouth set in a grim line. A scrawny girl is no match for him.
The gun feels foreign in my hand. It’s not my chosen form of weapon—I’ve never even shot one before. I almost laugh at that. To come so far without even firing a gun.
“Get
Sayfa 291
