Promise of Darkness by Bec McMaster

Author:Bec McMaster [McMaster, Bec]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bec McMaster

24

It takes me several days to recover from the onslaught of the curse breaking. I spend those days either sleeping or roaming the battlements of Ceres, looking down at the town.

I know now why Thiago kept me locked away up here.

There are too many people in the town who know who I am. All it would take would be one slip, and then the curse’s steely trap might have snapped shut and driven me mad.

It reminds me of my mother’s court. Doors slamming in my face. All those nobles and emissaries glancing at me from a distance before they were whisked away. It was never obvious how closely guarded I was, but my mother ascertained that I was kept away from anyone who might reveal the truth.

All those lonely hours in the stables or in the library were merely another sort of prison.

“Vi,” Thiago calls, breaking me out of my reverie. He’s striding along the battlements toward me. “The others are in my war chamber. Do you think you’re ready to join us?”

After days of mindless recovery, I’m ready to rejoin even my mother’s court.

Or not quite.

Surely, I’m not that desperate for company.

“I would love to.”

He escorts me inside, and I can feel the tension in his silence. We haven’t touched since that day. Nor have we kissed. Sometimes he looks at me as if he’s still silently counting how many kisses I owe him, but I haven’t dared broach the subject.

I needed time, and he gave it to me.

The others are gathered in the audience chamber.

“Welcome, my princess,” Finn says, bowing again as if we’re meeting for the first time. I don’t know where he’s been, but it wasn’t in the city.

“Is he always like this?” I ask Thalia.

“Always,” she admits, rolling her eyes. “Finn would flirt with your dead grandmother.”

Eris mutters into her wine, “Though his favorite flirtation is with the mirror.”

Finn shakes his head.

“I can’t quite remember why I missed you, Princess,” he says. “Or these moments where the three of you decide to cast such vile lies upon my innocent ears.”

“Someone has to contain your enormous sense of arrogance,” Eris tells him.

“And that someone is you?” he asks coolly, stealing her wineglass and draining it before she even has a chance to snatch for it. “If you were any other woman, I’d be questioning just what your fascination with challenging my pride is.”

“It’s a good thing I’m not any other woman,” she points out, just as coolly. “And it amuses me, nothing more.”

“Nothing less,” Finn murmurs.

Eris looks like she wants to stab him.

Thalia gives me a quelling look that clearly says we’ll speak about it later and tucks my arm through hers. “We’ve all missed you, Vi. Thiago said you needed time to recover, but I was starting to suspect he’d locked you away so he could have you all to himself.”

I can’t deny her words.

They must assume we…. That everything is back to the way it was.

“I have news,” Thiago announces, as if he’s eager to divert their attention too.

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