Cameo and the Highwayman (Trilogy of Shadows Book 2) by McCullough-White Dawn

Author:McCullough-White, Dawn [McCullough-White, Dawn]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Tags: General Fiction
Publisher: Claypipe Press
Published: 2010-10-10T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eight

IT WAS NEARLY DAWN. Edel had lingered in the wood behind the palace for most of the night before he determined to come home. He decided to enter through a window, the same one he had brought Cameo in when she had first come to stay with him. He hoped she was maybe asleep, or at least in her room.

When he entered, she was not in the sitting room. He sped to the door, rushing to get to his tomb and wishing to avoid a confrontation.

“Edel!” She ran from the dining room. “Did you find Opal?”

For a moment he considered lying to her. “Yes. I saw him.”

“You didn’t bring him back?”

“No....”

“Was he all right? Did you set him free?”

The vampire brushed her aside as he crossed the room. “I couldn’t free him,” he said darkly.

She felt her heart fall. All of her hopes for Opal’s safety were fading, and she felt an iciness filling the pit of her stomach. “Why not?”

“My conscience wouldn’t let me do so.”

“Why not?”

He turned back to look at her. “He’s Francois Mond.”

“What?” She laughed, “What? They have him confused with Francois Mond! Oh, gods, they’ll kill him! We have to save him now—”

“He is Francois Mond.”

Cameo shook her head. “Black Opal is Francois Mond? No, I can’t believe that. Opal?” Her mind was racing with all the silly things that she had seen him do. All the preening, all the ridiculous arguments that he had had with Kyrian, his life as a highwayman. “No, that can’t be right.”

“I read his mind.”

“Why didn’t you tell me before?”

“I didn’t know.”

“Didn’t you read his mind when he was here?”

“I didn’t really try to, no, and nothing came to me, nothing… of that nature. I did tell you that he seemed familiar to me though, and now I see why.”

Suddenly the conversation that she’d had with Opal back at the Lakestar made more sense to her. The discussion the two of them had had about Kyrian saving her soul, and the accusation she had made that he had done nothing more than break a few hearts in his time. If he was Francois, the architect of the revolution, then he had incited a people to rise up and overthrow the royals—overthrow their government and take matters into their own hands.

“He and his friends did more than murder the Belfours,” Edel said softly. “Do you have any idea what their army was doing all that time, when they were paranoid about a counter-revolution?”

“Intercepting the mail, throwing people in prisons.”

“It was more than that. They executed anyone suspected of being less than patriotic about the cause. The military used to roast women and their infants alive in bread ovens for amusement as they grew increasingly bored; thousands of innocents were killed, and it meant nothing. The monarchy was soon restored.”

“I can’t believe it could’ve been Opal. I know him.”

“You can’t believe it because he’s not the monster or the god everyone wants him to be.”

Her face hardened. “Maybe, but you’re trying to pin everything on one man.

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