“It isn’t polite to stare,” Daimon says with an amused laugh and lifts the cup toward me. My nose wrinkles, and he shrugs. “If you’re disgusted by this, then I take it you haven’t made the final connection to your Essence yet.”
My mouth tightens. With everything that’s happened, Ialmost forgot the way my trial ended—those of us whodidmake it out didn’t complete the trial fully. What should’ve been the night I finally connected with my immortality became a night of loss and death.
Something I still don’t know the full ramifications of.
My heart stutters a beat when he takes another sip. Bile rises in my throat as he swallows more blood.
The rest of his words sink in. IfI’mdisgusted by it… Why wouldn’t I be? I’ve never heard of a fae drinking blood—either by need or want. “If you’re suggesting that any part of me wouldenjoydrinking that?—”
“You’ll come to crave far more than a simple drink,” he drawls. “As my heir, you have much to learn about what it means to rule the Shadow Lands.”
A bitter laugh bursts from my lips. “What makes you think I would ever have an interest in ruling a place like this?”
Not that I would want toruleanything, but especially not here. My eyes drift out to the party, where the forked-tongue girl from earlier is now being held back, screaming obscenities at a man with beetle-like wings.
Beside them, a half-unclothed couple makes out against the wall. The woman is pushed up on top of a table, her translucent dress hiked up to her waist, while the man grips her ass. Their tongues tangle, their moans almost louder than the screaming forked-tongue girl.
No one is fazed by anything happening, as if this is a normal event.
“I think you misunderstand me.” Daimon shifts away from me, and I turn my attention back to him. “You are not heir to ruling the Shadow Lands, but heir to the kingdom Vidaris will raise. Why do you think you were brought here?”
I fight back the gasp in my throat at his words. Heir to the kingdom Vidaris will raise? Why would she need anyone to rule for her? I don’t even have my magic now, and Opal made it clear they would keep it safely tucked away from me in Nightfall.
The more he says, the less I understand my purpose here. But no matter what he expects of me, I will never give in to it. I willneverstop fighting.
“You forget that I’m my mother’s daughter, too,” I seethe. His eyes lift to mine, stormy and unreadable. “I amnothinglike you.”
A small grin curls the corners of his mouth upward. “And yet here you are.” He swirls the liquid in his cup and stares down at it. “Without a wyvern and without friends.”
Rage courses through my body, and I feel a flicker of my magic try to answer my call.
“What did you do to Zephyr?” I hiss, my voice a deadly whisper.
His eyes narrow, a small twitch of his lids—as if he’s confused but trying not to show it. “You’ll have to be more specific,” he answers, his voice equally low.
I take a step toward him, my chin high as I look down at him on his throne. A tremble starts in my fingers, so I quickly squeeze my hand into a fist, hoping he didn’t notice. But the way his eyes snap briefly to my fists, I know he did.
It took me years to perfect masking my emotions from Reichardt, yet Daimon notices every muscle that flinches. Every breath.
He leans forward, his elbows resting on his knees. “If you’re asking if I hurt her, the answer is no.” He tips his head toward me. “She is alive and well.”
My eyes narrow, not believing him for a second. “Prove it.”
A deep chuckle rumbles in his chest, and he settles back into his throne, slowly searching the crowd behind me. Without looking at me, he says, “You’re right to not trust me.”
The wordsI don’t trust anyonesit on the tip of my tongue. But that isn’t entirely true—not anymore.
Before Graylen, Avery, and Addie took me to Penyth, that may have been mostly true. I trusted Linnick, but then he died. I trusted Opal, but she was taken away from me. I trustedAdrian, but he betrayed me…even if he did the right thing in the end. I still lost him after all of that.
And then I found Penyth. I met my mother—who may have lied to me about my father, but there has to be a reason. I went from having no one to trust to more than I could count on one hand. There’s Avery and Addie, who have been there for me since the moment I arrived in Penyth. Then there’s Brielle and Leda, who have been firm but honest with me every step of the way.
Who I didn’t see coming was Graylen.
Infuriating and irritating Graylen.
From the moment I met him, he had me figured out. He saw through the mask I had so carefully disguised myself with. It was never about what I could do for him, but whathecould do for me—something I wasn’t used to in Crea.
I gave myself to him in ways I’ve never let anyone else see, and I would do it again. If I ever get the chance.
