It was a stark contrast to my heat.
“I can not believe he did that!”I huffed.
“I can,” she said coolly.“He does have a claim on you, after all.”
“A claim is not an excuse to act like a...a...”
“Monster?”Wanda pressed, her voice apathetic and even.
“Bane is not a monster,” I said.“He is many things, but he is not a monster.”
“We are all monsters, Violet.Some of us are just better at hiding our true colors than others.”
I heard the unwavering truth in her voice and her words cut me deep.
“You are not a monster,” I said.“And Delaney and I certainly aren’t.”
“You see the good in people, Violet.Of course you would say that.”
We turned a corner, ascending the stairs to the second floor where our quarters lay.
“Thank you,” I said.
“That wasn’t a compliment,” Wanda said with a sigh.“You trust people easily.It is how you ended up kidnapped, if I remember correctly.”
I stopped on the landing, just before a large window and she did the same.Beneath the fire-lit torches, she looked like a monster.
A beautiful monster with bright eyes and a judgmental glare that could kill.
“I had just found out my mother?—”
“And because you trusted that letter, because you trusted you would be safe, you were kidnapped.”
There was a tense silence between us before she spoke again.
“Bane was only doing what he vowed to do when he claimed you.”She sighed deeply.“His monster doesn’t understand politics.It only understands thatyouare in danger.”
“Desmond does not seem so dangerous,” I said, but even as I said the words I wasn’t all that sure I believed them.
“We do not know enough of the Dark Fae Prince to trust him, Violet.”
His words were still lodged in my brain.He’d seemed hurt I hadn’t taken his side, hurt that perhaps I blamed him.
Hurt that I called him anadversary.
And then it dawned on me.PerhapsIwas the adversary.
Desmond hadn’t done anything to provoke me.He was polite, albeit a little flirtatious, but flirtation was harmless.He was a prince, for goodness sake.Charm was in their blood.
He’d even tried to make small talk and ample conversation with me, and though I knew our history, I let it shape the way I treated him.
I assumed the worst of him when Bane shifted.
I was a fool, and my quick action could have cost me an ally.
A friend.
Memories of my arrival at Blackthorn assaulted me.I had grown up so lonely, so desperate for a friend, I was quick to attach myself to the siren standing before me, and the Kraken in her midst, believing they wanted my best interest when all they wanted was to leech my lust.
