Page 49 of The Shadow Heir

My brows pinched. “What about the trial? Am I supposed to find out all this and report back to you before the trial starts?”

Cold wind tossed his hair across his forehead as he continued. “That would be ideal, yes, but—”

“I see,” I said, cutting him off. “You need my help, but you’re still going to try to kill me in the morning?” My arms flewout at my sides. “You really should work on your bargaining techniques.”

“—but,” he repeated between clenched teeth, “since I know you likely won’t have time tonight, I will have to make sure you survive the trial tomorrow morning.”

My lips parted as breath rushed from my lungs, swirling in the air around the heir’s face.

He was going tosave my lifeto get this information.

Before words could form on my tongue, my head began to shake in disbelief. “I don’t like this. I don’t want to be in your debt.”

He rolled his eyes. “You won’t be. Not after you bring me the information I desire. The mortals who have been poisoned do not know who is behind the attacks. But someone does, and you must find out who.”

My head was still shaking, processing. “Why do you care about the mortals? You like to watch us die.”

“I don’t have to explain myself to you.”

“Do you want my help or not?” I shot back.

With a long exhale, he stepped off the bottom stair and took a few steps away before speaking to me over his shoulder. “Whoever is poisoning the mortals is merely using them to test me. My court is well aware of the antidotes and potions I keep, so each poison they concoct is another attempt to see if I have a remedy. They’re hoping to find one I do not have a cure for, a poison they can use on—on their target.”

“On you,” I muttered.

Casimiro did not respond but his silence was answer enough. Someone in this court of nightmares wanted tokillthe heir. The information shouldn’t have been shocking, considering the deplorable nature of these creatures, but it shook me nonetheless to know that this immortal was facing his own deadly trial.

“You want me to help you survive? Don’t you think you should have considered that before you tried to kill me?”

He cleared his throat. “I want you to uncover the traitor in my halls. I will not die by his hand.”

“Or hers.”

He shot me a quizzical look.

“Could be a woman, you know. Especially with as charming as you are.”

I glanced up at the stars, unsure how the heavens or whoever lived in them had concocted such a convoluted mess to toss me in. “I don’t understand. You said they’re poisoning the humans to find out whatyoudon’t have a cure for. How does that tell them—”

“Because I heal them.”

“I’m sorry, what?”

As if moving closer would help me hear him better, I stepped down to the path, blinking rapidly as I tried to assimilate what he’d just said.

“I heal the mortals when they’re poisoned,” he said plainly.

For several heartbeats, I forgot how cold it was out here. Heat flared in my chest as I stared at Casimiro, his hair and his loose shirt rippling in the harsh wind in a terribly distracting way.

Finally, I found my words. “How can you heal some of us and kill others?”

His hand slid across the back of his neck as he rolled his chin upward. “Do not worry yourself with the ways of the Shadow Court. Find out who is behind the poisoning, and I will tell you what you wish to know about your friend. But ask anyone else of your friend, and my magic will bind their words.”

My chin inadvertently turned aside, as if I’d been slapped. “You really are a monster.”

But the words felt less true now that I knew he was healing mortals. He could simply let them die and, in so doing, keep hisantidotes a secret, but he didn’t. He chose to save their lives at the risk of his own, and it bothered me to my core. He was a murderer. A wicked man. And yet he showed mercy.

To some.

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