Page 36 of Haunted

She is darkness.

Yet she feels hurt.

As I wipe her tears away with my thumbs, she closes her eyes. She’s vulnerable. She allows it with me.

And no other.

I’m in her confidence.

I will no longer wait for her to make the first move. I hug her, and she melts against my chest.

No one sees her as I do. No one knows this other face she presents. Even though I tried to stop myself for weeks, I thought of nothing but her. Because she haunted me. I can’t stop thinking about how she feels in my arms.

Maybe she’s toying with me. Maybe I am a fool and I’m falling into a trap, a ploy to weed out if I’m loyal or not.

Or maybe she does just want me near. I stroke her hair and kiss the top of her head. It’s something my mother did when I was sad.

When the empress snuggles in closer and wraps her arms around me, I take that as a sign that I’m in her good graces.

“I’ll come with you,” I say. “I’ll always be by your side.”

I swear her cheek lifts into a smile against my chest.

29

Empress Rhianu pauses in front of the dungeon’s door. She’s visibly shaken, and this worries me. She doesn’t want to do whatever she plans on doing during this interrogation. “I need you to wait here, Caedryn. No matter what you hear, swear to me you will not come inside.”

I’ve come with her this far, why not into the room? Unless she’s ashamed of what’s about to happen.

Trying to guess her thoughts, I lock eyes with her. The brown in them shimmers with extra moisture. I know better than to question her. I wish she’d tell me what has her so conflicted inside.

I utter, barely audible, one word, one I shouldn’t say because it’s too familiar without the title, but I’ve imagined saying her name over and over in my head. “Rhianu.”

Her eyes narrow, just imperceptibly. Her name does not have the effect I hoped. “Do I have your word?” she asks.

I nod. “Yes, Your Highness.”

She jerks her head in a curt acknowledgment and sweeps into the chamber, sure of herself. The thick wooden door closes ominously behind her.

She’s back to business. Does my presence give her strength? I know of no other reason she has asked me here. So I stand in the hallway, bracing myself for whatever I might hear.

Bless the poor soul who is to be tortured. Give me the strength to bear the torment of the prisoner—and the empress.

Curious, I feel for the light of the prisoner the empress will torture. As I sense the light, a light more powerful than my own, my chest constricts.

The poor soul is Siana, the empress’s mother, Mother Emrys to us all.

30

After a long hour of hearing Siana’s cries and whimpers, I berate myself. How can I stand here while the empress lashes her mother? How can I care for this deranged woman? A woman who reveals her worst to others but who has softened in my presence alone.

Without meaning to, from weeks ago, I envision a flash of her skin, imagine the taste of her mouth. Her sorrowful sobs fill my mind from when she threw herself into my arms. I don’t want to believe anymore that she was pretending. Her emotions were deep. For someone who all believe is unfeeling, she has been portraying the weight of many emotions.

The empress is no demon. Someone forces her hand. I see that now. Someone controls her. She begged for release, begged for a reprieve when I found her sobbing on the floor of her chambers.

Still, she has done terrible things. Still, she has great power, no doubt given to her from the Dark Master, because no other Dark Emrys has command as she does. No one else knows how she is the most powerful Dark Emrys ever to tread the earth but those few in her inner circle.

His greater power holds her, binds her, controls her.

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