Page 94 of Shadows of Winter

“I request that you tell no one of my… condition,” he said when he opened his eyes.

The glint was gone. He’d regained control.

“I wasn’t planning to. Who would believe me?”

“You will not speak of it to your brother?” His eyebrows rose.

“I…” Would she? Frayvar was her only ally here, the only person she could rely on. She didn’t want to keep secrets from him, but this shouldn’t affect him in any way. Unless Vlerion lost it in the middle of their kitchen and endangered Frayvar, she couldn’t think of a reason he needed to know. “I won’t.”

His eyelids drooped halfway. “And the Virt girl who wants you to deliver information on the nobility to her?”

“I wouldn’t tell her.” That Kaylina could say without hesitation.

Judging by the way Vlerion continued to gaze at her, her lack of hesitation didn’t matter. He worried it was a possibility. Because they were both working class and would be drawn to band together against the nobles? Against someone like him?

Kaylina spread her arms, not sure how to explain that she barely knew the girl and didn’t feel any loyalty to her. So far, the rangers and commoners had annoyed her equally.

“It is the kind of information the Virts want and that they could use against me and my family. Maybe the entire aristocracy.” Vlerion looked over the cliff toward the city. “Over the generations that my family has been cursed… the beasts have killed many. That is because you have no control over its cruel and savage instincts when you change, not out of any malice or evilness in you as a person. My brother risked his life fighting as a ranger. He never would have taken the lives of others who were no threat to him or the kingdom. Not intentionally. And it is the same for me.”

“I believe you.”

They stood close to the edge of the cliff, and she again hoped he wasn’t contemplating that it would be safest for him to get rid of her. Easing to the side a few steps, Kaylina picked out the river in the distance and followed it to the castle, imagining she could see the red glow of the tower from there, though it faced the wrong direction to be visible.

“They would come for me en masse if they knew what I was,” Vlerion continued, not commenting on her steps away from him. “They might come for my family and our lands too. Do everything in their power to end the curse—to end the Havartaft line forever.” His voice grew so soft she barely heard him add, “I can’t even say that it would be a bad idea, but I would have to defend myself and especially my family.”

“I understand that.” They’d discussed how much family meant to them.

His gaze returned to her. “Perhaps you do.”

“Hopefully, you won’t be offended if I don’t swear my obedience and loyalty to you, but I didn’t want to know that secret to start with, and I’ll keep it for you, okay?” Kaylina willed him to believe that. “That beast, uhm… you saved my life in the catacombs. I owe you.”

“As we’ve discussed, you were only down there because I took you.”

“You don’t think I could have been curious and gone down and gotten in trouble all on my own? You don’t know me very well. Just last night, I broke into the tower and threatened a sentient plant.”

“Oh?”

“Frayvar was in danger, and I thought the answer to how to pull him out of it might be up there.”

“Was it?”

“Not really. He came around on his own. But there’s a big gnarly plant in a pot up there, kept alive by who knows what. I sure haven’t been watering it. It’s the source of the red glow.”

“You should leave it alone. There’s a reason someone removed those stairs and boarded it up. It probably tried to kill them.”

Remembering the flexing vines, Kaylina deemed that likely. “There’s got to be a way to remove the curse though. And your curse. They’re tied together, right?”

“Many in my family have researched our curse.”

Yes, his mother had said that, but… “Have they researched Stillguard Castle?”

“I’m not aware. Perhaps not since it doesn’t belong to our family.”

“Well, I’ll research it. I’ll get my brother on it too. He loves books. Not good rousing romantic adventures but nonfiction.” She wrinkled her nose. “He’s weird.”

“You’ll involve your brother whom you’re not going to share my secret with?” His eyebrows went up again.

“Yeah. He doesn’t need to know about that part of the curse to do research. He’ll do research because he thinks it’s fun. Like I said, weird.” She tried a smile for him.

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