I’ve been spending way too much time in the training hall, but it’s better than staying here and obsessing over a mystery that won’t reveal itself to me in its entirety.
Or worse. Thinking abouthim.
I slip on my combat leathers with haste and turn towards the doors, tangling my fingers in my long curls, fighting to tame my chocolate mane into a messy braid.
There’s a lone crimson tendril swishing in the narrow space between the door and the stone floor, rushing to dissipate back into the hallway.
What the fuck?
I pull the doorknob hard, and I catch just a glimpse of blood-red mist before it vanishes into thin air.
I sit there dumbfounded, blinking slowly to adjust my sight to the low glow of the candlelit torches that barely illuminate the corridor.
Was Killian just here?
Why would he be lurking in the shadows outside my bedchamber? He was very adamant—he did not want to see or hear from me. He all but spelled it out the last time I saw him, the day the missive from Ryawarath arrived announcing that Prince Noahlin had ascended to be the new Fae King and his new wife was the Fae Queen. My fucking sister, Aurora.
He didn’t relent for even one second. Didn’t give me the chance to tell him how sorry I was for everything that transpired. For my part in it by withholding my twin’s malevolent nature.
He stared at me with obsidian eyes devoid of any emotion and told Blaise to keep me out of his sight. I was no longer banished from his castle, but I wasn’t forgiven, nor were my lies forgotten.
I must be imagining things.
My longing for him, which I’m trying my damnedest to suppress, must be so all-encompassing that I’ve started hallucinating his presence.
No, he most definitely wasn’t here just now.
He hates me.
And I’d better accept that once and for all.
Whatever we had for a brief moment in time was just that—an ephemeral daydream that couldn’t withstand the harsh reality.
My dark shadows coil around my limbs in mourning. The stubborn things won’t abandon the reverie so easily, but eventually they’ll give up on him just as he gave up on us.
Chapter 2
Killian
Shit.
She almost caught me just now.
I should have no business lurking outside her chambers in the dead of night, not after everything.
I’ve been saying loud and clear that I want nothing to do with her. She withheld the truth from me, from all of us, feeding me only bits and pieces of her story, conveniently forgetting to mention the precarious parts that would have made all the difference.
Who the hell am I kidding, though?
My mind might blame her for the blow we took when her evil twin infiltrated the castle under false pretenses and went on a killing rampage, freeing her onpyr minions from the dungeons.
But my stupid heart doesn’t give a shit.
Nor do my shadows.
I knew it was a bad idea to keep her around. I wanted her to vanish out of sight, out of mind. Blaise was supposed to free her from the Osmyniumcuffs and send her away wherever she wanted to go. But yet again, Fate had other plans. I’m starting to resent this Fate bitch, and if I ever get my hands on such a higher power that plays with me like I’m the midnight entertainment, I’ll wring its fucking neck.
It wasn’t enough that I fell in love with the treacherous sister of my nemesis.
