Riyan blinked and hissed hot air through his nostrils. He was half-raised and his cape had fallen off his side and pooled around his hips. Even in a sitting position, he was still taller than a grown man. Still powerful.Still deadly.
My heart pounded in my ears. My hands wrapped around the rocks beneath my palms. I could have thrown a rock at him and maybe slowed him down before he attacked me, but my blood froze in my veins and I couldnot move.
But Riyan surprised me. He did not reach down to attackme, he…laughed.
“You really were serious about wanting to kill me, huh?” His short bursts of laughter echoed off the mountain stone. “I just can’t believe you didn’ttry sooner!”
He kept laughing. My fear morphed into confusion as I sat motionless in the rocks. Riyan was not angry, he had a thick tongue…oh no, hewas drunk.
I quickly scanned the landscape and, sure enough, an empty glass bottle the size of my chest laid on its side near Riyan. Sothatwasthe bribe.
I clenched my teeth. What kind of sick bastard had the nerve to get drunk after killing his own grandparents? I unclenched and let out a breath, remembering Riyan’s confession from earlier. He was not indulging or celebrating, he had pushed the poison past his lips as a tonic to sleep, or maybe even forget what hehad done.
“But I thought you were smart, sweetheart,” Riyan slurred. He reached for me with his massive finger like he wanted to tap me on the nose, but he clumsily just swiped at the air instead. “If you kill me, you die too. And then we’llallbe dead!”
The numbing fog that had enveloped my entire body compressed into a tense grey cloud in my chest. I sat up in the rocks and leaned forward to hug my knees. “No, Riyan. If you die before our blood bond becomes permanent, the bond is just severed. I would…I would still getto live.”
Shame rained down on my shoulders, but Riyan’s drunken smile did not break. “And who told you that?” His bloodshot eyes flicked down to the dagger still lying in the rocks. With a heavy arm, he reached down and plucked the dagger between his forefinger and thumb. He held the bull’s head hilt in front of his face for a few moments before booming out a laugh so forceful I thought he would cause an avalanche. “I’m an idiot! Youdostill loveDerrick Hyton!”
He lowered the dagger and lolled his head to the side, resting it on his massive fist. He looked at me and smirked. “You didn’t have to kill me to go back to him. I told you I would have letyou go.”
My lower lip trembled as I held the truth behind clamped teeth. No, I could not hide. Riyan at least deservedmy honesty.
I squeezed my knees tighter into my chest and forced the words out. “Derrick was afraid for my life when I married you, so he told me that if I killed…if I severed our blood bond, I would marry the next leader of Ravenwood. Then Duke Hyton gave both the Northern provinces to the Baron of Bloodstone to punish my father for hishigh treason.”
Riyan knitted his eyebrows and nodded his head against his fist, slowly piecing together everythingI said.
I tried to swallow but my mouth was too dry. “Our marriage is going to annul because you are too big to…you know.I figured…either I go back to Hyton after the full moon as Duke Hyton’s property and let both Ravenwood and Bloodstone fall to the Hytons or…or I make Duke Hyton indebted to me for killing you so he lets me keep the North andyour mother—”
“Wait, hold on,” Riyan slurred. “Why…why would Duke Hyton want me dead? I’m…I’m his hero,aren’t I?”
I bit my tongue, but let the words fly free. “Because you are a threat tothe crown.”
“How? I don’t want thefucking crown!”
He was drunk. I wished I had a better time to tell him, but he deserved to know. “Riyan, General Hyton isyour father.”
Riyan looked down at me with wide eyes. He did not breathe.
After three heavy heartbeats, he shook his head and let out a mirthless laugh. “The General…can’t be my father. He hates me. I’ve been under his command fortwelve yearsand henever once…”
Riyan silenced as I slowly nodded. “The Hytons want everyone to believe you are a half-giant so no one knows you are another heir tothe throne.”
Riyan snorted as he played with the dagger in his fingers. “So they want me eliminated. And pretty boy Lord Hyton sends a girl up the mountain to do his dirty work. What adickless little—”
“He did not send me to kill you,” I interjected. Derrick’s jealousy bled into possessiveness, but if he knew Riyan was a Hyton heir, the stubborn bull would have done much more to kill Riyan than merely hand me a dagger. “All he asked of me was if I had to choose between my life and yours, I would keepmyself safe.”
Looking into Riyan’s eyes as I explained how I had planned to murder him was torture, but I could not look away. “Duke Hyton…is going to take everything—the North, the magic of the mountain, your mother, me. I just thought…if I could have some control…I could makeeverything better—”
My throat seized before I could explain any more, but Riyan stared down at me with a trembling lip and shoulders hunched forward like he understood. He looked at me with clear eyes, as if the weight of my words had completelysobered him.
“When you take control,” Riyan said quietly, “will you give me your word that you will take care ofmy mother?”
My word was no good. My silver tongue was its own dagger, cutting lies into the ears of everyone I had ever known. I could have told him anything and he would have drank it like poison, but since I owed him my honesty, I gave itto him.
I unlocked my hands from around my knees and opened my chest to the night air. “Of courseI would.”
Riyan blinked and looked to the night sky. Tears welled up in his eyes but he wiped them away with the sides ofhis thumbs.
