Page 118 of A Deal with the Shadow King

A dry chortle escapes me. “We were never in love, Rye.”

Longing and desire flash in her eyes. “Mm. I remember it differently.” She turns to Nell and winks. “He’s a greedy lover, isn’t he?”

“Don’t”—my jaw clenches hard enough to hurt—“speak to her.”

Rye used her to get to me, and I never saw it coming. I will never forgive myself.

“I should have known that you weren’t telling me the whole truth, Penny. But you played the part of the demure, virginal princess so well.”

Nell bares her teeth in warning. “You’ve been lying all this time. Don’t pretend to care for me or Cece.”

“I guess I don’t.” Rye’s conspiratorial smile vanishes, replaced by pure disdain. “Given how highly you think of yourself, it must sting that you didn’t figure it out sooner. I think it was pretty obvious that I wasn’t in it for the joy of fucking a drunk brute and raising his spoiled magic brat. Your mother had more instinct. That’s why I had to kill her.”

“You monster!” Nell shrieks.

Three wraps an arm around her waist in time to stop her from running blindly at Morrigan, but Two marches out to the balcony with an equal spark of madness.

“Fuck it. Let’s kill the bitch,” he says.

Three licks his lips, his gaze riveted on our ex-fiancé. The third fraction of my shredded soul looks the phantom queen up and down like he wishes to kill and fuck her all at once. That traitor.

I raise a hand to calm them down. “Nobody moves.”

A delighted giggle slips from Rye’s throat. “Still fighting amongst yourselves, are you? Let me see if I remember…” She bites down on her bottom lip. “Ah… yes.

One dark shard to hunt nightmares.

A second, wicked piece for dreams.

Three for the fantasies we cannot speak.

Four for a man to simply be.”

My teeth grit together. “I should never have breathed a word of that wretched spell.”

In the gardens below, a cluster of spiders use their long, lethal legs to drag my hunters across the clearing one by one, each of them bound and bundled in webs. The creatures transport them to the foot of the Hawthorn and hang them from the branches like fucking Christmas ornaments.

Rye was just buying time with her speech, waiting for them to present me with a complete picture of my failure.

I’d rather die than marry her, but maybe it’s all I deserve.

“It’s time to choose, Damian. Marry me under the Morheim moon, and your little princess, hunters, and sprites will be saved. No one else has to die.”

What’s the alternative? Fight to the death and drag everyone with me? Even if I manage to kill Rye, I can’t take on that many dreamcatcher spiders. Not before they kill the hunters. Not before they kill Nell.

A dry-heave rocks my sternum. “And you promise not to harm her in any way. You will let her live her life? No tricks?”

Rye’s hazelnut eyes widen, and her demeanor loses its villainous quality, replaced by the poise of a woman who can taste her victory. And she knows enough not to squander it by gloating. “I swear it.”

My arms fall at my sides. “You have a deal.”

“No!” Nell screams. My kitten scratches her way out of Three’s hold and lunges forward. Her arms fly around my neck, and she wraps herself around me with the strength and speed of an ensnarer vine. “Take my magic and kill her instead. Please.”

I nuzzle the side of her face and breathe in deep. I want to imprint her scent in my memory before I release her from the promise that brought her to my doorstep. I want to remember the feel of her skin. The beauty of her eyes. For a moment in her arms, I felt like a man again—foolish as it was.

I bury a hand in her white-blond hair, and the silky strands snake around my fingers. “Don’t cry for me, kitten. I will visit you in your dreams until the day I die.” I peck her lips, knowing I’m seeing her for the last time in this life. “Penelope Emanuelle Darcy, I release you from the deal.”

Chapter 41

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