What did you get into
The torchlight dances in his dark eyes as he stares down at me. “Let’s
start with your name.”
“I’m Severine.”
“No. Your real name.”
“That is my real name.”
He cocks his head, and a lock of ebony hair falls before one of his eyes.
“If I desire, I can wrap you in a dream, girl. And in that dream, you will feel
compelled to say your real name a thousand times. You will say it for days,
for weeks, until you starve half to death, until the word no longer has
meaning. So, let’s try this again. What’s your name?”
Thunder rumbles outside, rattling the diamond-shaped glass panes.
I feel it then, a touch of his velvety power, brushing at the edges of my
mind. Threatening to wrap around me, to envelop my reality. He really will
do it unless I act fast. The shield in my mind isn’t strong enough. There
wasn’t enough time to practice.
Lying works best when it is laced with truth. I can give this evil fucker a
crumb.
I narrow my eyes at him, jaw tightening.
I should be acting like a meek girl, intimidated by the crown prince. But
Raphael’s words still echo in my mind, and the state of his ravaged, tortured
body burns my thoughts like a brand.
“Fine, it’s Nia.” I spit out the words. “Vaillancourt.” My words come
out sharper than they should, while my mind is whirring, making up a story
that would work, that would convince him I’m not worth his time.
“So, Nia. What are you doing here?” His voice is so uncannily familiar,
and the sound of his deep, velvety voice as he speaks my name sends a
strange rush of heat through my blood.
My pulse is racing out of control. Some Fey can hear a heartbeat while
standing nearby. I wonder if he’s one of them.
I lift my chin. “My family and I are tenants on farmland we don’t own.
The Culling Test
“Wow, demi-Fey? I’ve never seen one. What did they look like?”
“Fucking weird, pardon my language. The man had pointy ears,
obviously. Dark hair. Tattoos on his arms, eerie silver eyes like metal.
Beautiful blonde woman with him. You know, I don’t mind the women
demi-Fey quite as much. I’d give her one,” he says thoughtfully. “Pardon
the expression.”
I toss a horseshoe, and it clatters to the floor of his stall. A thought starts
to blossom in my mind. “Did they have anything with them?”
He shrugs. “I don’t know. Why do you ask?”
I open my eyes wide. “Well, like you said, they’re dangerous. And you
know the saying, if you see something, say something.”
He holds up a finger. “Do you know what, love? The fella was carrying
something. It was in a box, like a musical instrument or something. They
never brought it out again.” His eyes widen. “Do you think they could be
planning something? You don’t think it was a bomb, do you?” He scrubs a
hand over his mouth. “With all these people here? Should I call the police?”
I toss both horseshoes one after the other, so off the mark that one
nearly hits one of the prize dolls. “It’s probably nothing. I doubt demi-Fey
even know how to make a bomb. We don’t want the police shutting the
whole fair down over an empty box.”
What I know at this point is that Raphael and Vivian came in earlier and
left a package here, then left.
The Excalibur replica.
“We will obviously need to reschedule the shadow trial.” Wrythe sighs.
“Ms. Melisende can do it properly with the rest of the cadets.”
“No,” Raphael says.
Wrythe frowns at him. “Right. You think she should be expelled after
all?”
“She won’t do the shadow trial again. She’s shown her leadership by
sending cadets to call for backup,” Raphael says. “She followed an enemy
agent through the fair
To Her
I arch a brow. “And who are you?”
The group seems to tense all at once, sharing silent exchanges. The
leader steps forward, hand still gripping his sword. I watch him and the rest
like a hawk, ready to kill in a single blink.
But instead of attacking, he lifts his hand. “This is who we are,” he
says as he knocks a fist at his own chest. “Do you wear the symbol?”
My gaze drops down to the pin fastened against his tunic. It’s no
bigger than the pad of my thumb. The circle of metal has a bird in the
center, one wing clearly broken.
“We wear the sigil of the Vulmin Dyrūnia.”
I frown at the words. They sound familiar. I think I’ve heard them
many years ago.
“The—” My mind snaps with long-forgotten knowledge of the
ancient fae language. A language I haven’t studied since I was a boy. It
creaks in my head like entering a dusty room whose door hasn’t been
shoved open in decades. Struggling to break open the rusted locks, I shake
my head. “Vul—light?” I question.
“Vulmin Dyrūnia,” he repeats, stressing the suffix of the word.
“Dawn. It means dawn’s bird.”
Something shifts in my chest. Makes me pause.
“And what exactly is that?”
“We are the resistance to the tyranny of the Carricks.”
Now I remember. I heard my father mention them before, but they
were spoken of like vagabonds. Petty criminals.
“So the Vulmin oppose the invasion that’s happening in Orea?”
He looks around his group, some of them whispering tensely, and he
rubs a hand down his beard. “So it’s true?” he asks. “Carrick mobilized the
army, but we didn’t know… The bridge?”
“Rebuilt.”
He swallows hard. I see another go pale.
So lets test it
“This is going to change everything,” I breathe. “If I can master this,
then I can touch anything, any hour of the day. I can be casual and
unrestricted. I won’t have to live in the dark anymore.”
In more ways than one.
“Because even if I gild something, I can ungild it.”
A low hum comes from his throat, and he lifts a hand like he’s going
to touch my face, but I rear back, batting his hand away with my elbow.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m going to grab your face and kiss you.”
My stomach tightens, because that sounds like a very nice reward, but
then my eyes snap to the outside of the cave. “It’s still daylight.”
“But you just proved that you can ungild something if need be.”
He tries to move again, and I leap up out of his lap. “Let’s not get
hasty. That was only my first time.”
Slade gets to his feet, and the look in his eye makes my body go hot
all over.
“You know how to call your gold-touch, and you also know how to
make it retreat now,” he says as he begins to prowl toward me with a
hungry look in his eye.
I lift my hands up in front of me to ward him off. “I only just learned
how to do that three seconds ago!”
He doesn’t reply, just keeps coming for me, and great Divine, the look
on his face. His dark green eyes sweep down my figure like he’s thinking
very dirty thoughts.
“I could still slip up. Now’s not the time to test this, and I definitely
shouldn’t test it on you.”
“You haven’t gilded anything involuntarily since you woke up,” he
points out, still prowling toward me.
I back up, shaking my head. “Let’s just save the kissing for when the
sun goes down. It’ll be like old times. It’s too soon to do this right now.”
The only think Aiden will fear of.Alıntı
I take a deep breath. Okay, here goes.
“Aiden?”
“Hmm, sweetheart?”
“I’m pregnant. Six weeks, to be exact.”
He freezes, the bottle of pills half-suspended in his hands.
Aiden wanted a kid three years ago, but he completely backed off when Dr Albert said it could be a danger to my life at that stage.
However, three months ago, Dr Albert told me it’s safe to have a child. Since then, I’ve been without birth control. I wanted to give him a surprise on our second anniversary two months ago. However, I didn’t fall pregnant.
I nearly cried every time my period came on time for the past three months.
Yesterday, my period was two weeks late. I took a test and boom, pregnant. I was so happy, I wanted to tell Aiden right away, but I kept it to myself until I had tests done with both Dr Albert and an OBGYN.
Aiden spins around. My mouth falls open. I never expected to see that expression on Aiden’s face.
Fear.
Complete terror.
He grabs my arm. “Let’s go to Dr Albert. He’ll tell us how to deal with this—”
“No.” I wiggle away from him. “I’m having this child.”
“And I’m not having a child that will risk your life.” Aiden’s voice is authoritative and final. “I’d rather be childless than without you.”
My eyes fill with tears at his statement because I know it’s true. Aiden would be happy with just me by his side. I feel it in my soul.
But I want to give him more. I want to give him everything. I want to be the mother of his children.
Chapter Ten
Over the roar of the motorcycle engine, she heard him shout, “Stop. Get off. Get off right now.”
Her heart jumped into her throat, and her mouth went cotton dry. Was it the police? What kind of trouble could she be in? She slowed down and pulled over next to the center divide like he’d done.
He sprinted toward her. “Get off the bike. Hurry.”
As soon as he came close enough for her to register the terror on his usually calm face, she started shaking. There had to be something wrong with the motorcycle. Was it going to explode?
She worked at the kickstand with a trembling foot, but before she’d managed to prop the bike up, Khải grabbed her by her upper arms and manually lifted her off the seat. The motorcycle crashed to its side, sending her things all over the rocks and scraggly grass.
His hair stood up in wild patches, and his face was a mask of fury. She’d never imagined he could be this angry. Without pausing to take breaths, he said, “Why did you take the bike why did you ride it I never said you could ride it.”
Her shaking worsened to the point where she couldn’t move. “S-sorry. I just went—”
He steered her across the grass toward his car. “Let’s go.”
“But I bought food. It fell all over. And the motorcycle. Someone will take it. I’ll bring it back—”
“Stay. Away. From. It,” he bit out.
Once she got into the car, he yanked the seat belt over her and buckled it, giving it a hard tug to make sure it was tight.
.
.
.
She threw her hands up in the air and followed him. “Why are you doing this? I’m not done.” She still had a lot of gutter left to clean, and she hated leaving a job unfinished. Without thinking, she grabbed his shoulder and said, “Anh Khải, put it back—”
He whipped around instantly and wrapped an arm across his chest so he could rub at the shoulder she’d
Sayfa 115
