Page 62 of When Wishes Bleed

Tauren took a deep breath. “Fate did this?”

I nodded, still unable to speak.

“He gives you wounds that aren’t real, but are. He singes you from the inside out… What else does he do?”

“Worse,” Brecan answered snappishly. His lavender eyes drilled into mine. “Much worse.”

Brecan had seen what Fate was capable of, but he still didn’t understand. No one did but me. Fate never did anything to hurt me; he did it to direct me. If he wanted something done, it was my duty as his daughter to do as he said. I knew there were reasons for everything he asked of me. Some of it was for my benefit, some for his.

Fate eased his grip on me and the fire in my belly was extinguished. I could breathe again, even as the acrid scent of smoke lingered in the air and in my nostrils.

Tauren nodded his head. “I’m narrowing my choice tonight. Five women will remain. I’ll have to ask you to be one of them, if you’re still agreeable, but I’ll hurry this process along. It’s the least I can do.”

Tauren’s golden eyes met mine, a torrent of emotion swirling through them. I wondered if mine roiled to match. Because as much as I appreciated the gesture, it meant my time with him would be cut short.

“Thank you,” Brecan answered. I couldn’t bring myself to say the words.

“Would the two of you like to go ahead to the dining room?” Tauren offered.

“We should stay together,” I croaked. “You’re unguarded.”

He pursed his lips. He wasn’t sure he was truly unsafe in his home, I could tell, but he’d been shot at on these grounds today and his guards had disappeared. The danger was clear and present. It couldn’t be ignored or balked at anymore.

As we exited his room, Tauren locked his door as Brecan started down the hall. Tauren slid his key into my hand. The golden metal gleamed against the black silk of my glove. I was about to ask why he’d done it when he leaned in. “You promised to meet me later, after all this. Return it then.”

The metal warmed in the palm of my hand. He closed my gloved hand around the key and I tucked it into the small, right-side pocket Mira had sewn into the gown. In the left-side pocket was a thinly folded map and my pendulum. If the murderer struck again, I would go to him. I would find him and make him pay. The embroidered noose tightened around my stomach, comforting instead of painful.

When Brecan turned the corner ahead of us, Tauren grabbed my hand and pulled me to a stop. “Thank you for once again coming to help me.”

“It’s what I agreed to,” I replied.

“It’s more than that to me.”

I nodded once. “You’re welcome.”

His eyes raked over me. “My God, you’re stunning.”

There it was. The look Mira described. Part pain. Part longing. Part lust.

My skin heated under his gaze.

“You’re wearing the necklace.”

The fingers of my free hand drifted to the facets of the largest center stone.

I slipped my fingers out of his. “Let’s catch back up with Brecan.”

He opened his mouth as if he wanted to say something, but I jogged ahead. Brecan waited impatiently at the bottom of the stairs.

The worst part was seeing Brecan wear the same look that Tauren had given me as he watched me descend the staircase with our prince.

Mira eased out from behind Brecan, her hair slick and shiny, grazing her shoulder. She wore a simple, but elegant black dress. As I passed, she bent her mouth to my ear. “My spiders are uneasy. Please be careful tonight.”

In that moment, a vision overtook me. I grabbed Mira’s arm to steady myself as I entered the mind of someone else. It was Rose, the redhead from Sector One. She stood in front of a mirror, applying more lipstick, pursing her lips again and again to even out the pigment. Then she turned her attention to her hair, even though there wasn’t a strand of it out of place.

She was talking with someone. In the mirror, I could see the girl from Sector Five with colorfully streaked hair. Her cuticles had been scrubbed, but vibrant splashes of paint still clung to them, refusing to budge because the hues were part of her. She was a painter, and a brilliant one at that. Rose suspected it was why she’d been invited.

“How was your lunch with the Prince?” Rose asked. Her eyes cut sharply to the girl. I didn’t know her name, but Rose looked at her as if she were nothing more than a sheep being cornered by Rose, a wolf.

---