It was his turn to stop and look at me, a faint line etched between his brows. “And then what?”
Shrugging again, I continued down the long corridor. “I stole Luca.”
“And you don’t think it’s strange that you had a vision?” he asked, his long strides catching him up to me.
“I mean, the voices were a bit creepy, and I was gutted—of course—but of all the strange things that have happened in the past year, it’s not even in the top ten.”
The corner of his mouth ticked up. “No, I suppose not.”
Something about his line of questioning had me wondering about my first night in the Summer Court as fae. “You know the dream I had, the one with Thaddeus and Wymond.”
He craned his neck, eyebrow popped. “If you mean the night terror where they both tried to siphon your powers, then yes.”
Side-stepping the implication as we passed through another archway, I said, “I was wondering, are you able to… um… I don’t know… maybe write me—like send a letter when you’re back in autumn?” I cringed, suddenly aware that it might be yet another stupid question to ask a fae.
His mouth quirked up in a way I was starting to recognize was amusement. “In a sense. Why?”
“Well, it made me worried for Tarrin. With Thaddeus' deal with Wymond, you’ll most likely see Tarrin, and I need to know that he’s okay—that I’m just being paranoid.”
He turned to face me so fast that I took a half-step back.
“What?” I said, suddenly on guard.
Tension lines pulled at the side of his mouth, his eyes going darker as they bore into me. “First,” he said with lethal calm, “stop calling it a dream. Second, why in the name of the old gods would you care what happens to him?”
My eyes bounced between his. “What do you mean? Tarrin didn’t do anything.”
“Exactly.” The single word was biting enough that it bounced down the corridor. “He didn’t doanything,” Endymion pressed. “He didn’t interject, or stop it before it happened. He didn’t try to find a way to tell you about their perverse connection. He. Did. Nothing. Nobody did anything to help you. To protect you. And if you hadn’t found out about your parents and left when you did…” He shook his head, face falling. “Stars only know if you’d still be alive. You had to run away. Physically, run.” The intense rage emanating from him was strong enough that I had to stop myself from taking another step back. Not out of fear, but to get oxygen. “And as far as I’m concerned,” he added, “that damn horse will never be his again.”
I didn’t respond immediately, needing a moment to separate his emotions from mine.
“Tarrin was at the mercy of Thaddeus,” I said, words soft. “Just as I was. I’d like to—no—Ineedto believe that he did everything hecould. And when the bond was broken, he told me. He didn’t hide from the truth.”
“But he didn’t tell you all of it. He still kept things from you; otherwise, you wouldn’t have had to learn about your parents from a bloody vision.”
“You’re right,” I admitted. “But Thaddeus is powerful in his own right. In the vision, Tarrin spoke of being bound, how he couldn’t tell me because he was still beholden to something outside of their connection.”
Endymion’s jaw ticked for a moment as he tried to compose himself, then on an exhale he said, “I will do as you ask. For you, I’ll do it. But to be clear, his existence disgusts me. All of them do.” His words were such that I could almost taste their bitterness as if it were mine. “I will never forgive what happened to you. And I’d be remiss if I let any of them live in the end.” There was no apology. No hesitation. And I knew with certainty that he’d not only kill them if given the chance, he’d revel in doing it.
I understood where he was coming from—I really did. But it was more nuanced than I’d ever be able to explain. Not to mention, this conversation did nothing to allay the knot in my stomach that was tied over him going back to the Autumn Court.
With nothing else to be said on the matter, we continued in silence down the long corridor, though I didn’t miss Endymion’s stolen glances out of the corner of my eye.
Now standing between the twinned archways, his weight shifted, and had I not known him better, I might’ve thought him nervous.
“Can you wait here for a moment,” he finally said. “I have to grab a few things. But… can you wait?” I nodded, and he gave me a small smile before turning toward his residence.
As he walked away, my heart sank, and I suddenly wondered if he’d been lying to me; that he wasn’t as nonchalant about going back to the Autumn Court as he’d have everyone believe.
A few minutes later he reemerged through the archway thatreminded me so much of him and his dark, glittering power. It was clear what he needed to grab before he left—weapons. Another sword was sheathed at his back, the equally stunning hilt peeking over his opposite shoulder. Daggers now lined his ribs, and I hadn’t remembered him armed with so much weaponry when he’d found me in the Autumn Court. Then again, a lot had happened, and my mind was anything but clear. A part of me hoped I’d been too distracted to notice and that he didn’t feel the need to be more prepared now than before.
The one thing that didn’t fit was some sort of light cream-colored fabric that draped over his forearm, which seemed dwarfed by him.
He approached with a small, tentative smile. As he got closer, he shifted his hand through the fabric, letting it drape over his palm, arm now extended.
My breath caught as I realized what it was. It wasn’t fabric at all. Closing the gap between us, I ran my fingers along the deliciously soft leather, and then, my eyes caught a shimmering gleam poking out.
My eyes shot up to his. “It’s a bandolier!”
