Page 69 of Blood On His Lips

Bloodshed, which he’d already had plenty of, or sex, would distract him best. A few hours, maybe a day, and the city could evacuate and the Houses not standing with him might begin to prepare a countermeasure.

Darkan. Where are you?

A stirring in my mind, that impression of a vast being turning its attention towards me. I almost shivered, now aware what that being was.

Brave girl.

The beguilement he’d placed on me had been strong for me not to have recognized Darkan’s mental voice as Renaud’s. So strong that he’d often repeated his own advice and I had just. . .not noticed.

I began to laugh and stopped when I intercepted my cousin’s odd stare. Right. Keep it together.

Darkan, talk to me.

You defy me, but now you wish to talk?

His mocking laughter sounded in my mind.

I beg your indulgence. Surely the events of the last several hours merited some shock? Come, you know me better than that.

As I spoke to him, I buried my true thoughts beneath the surface of our conversation.You know me.

It hurt, worse than pokers rammed into my eyes to talk to him like this. To guard my betrayal and resentment and fear and rage and speak to him like I didn’t want to jab said pokers into his eyes.

Yes, I do. Very well, come to me, if you can. Find me.

I don't think I'll have any problem finding you, Renaud. I'll just follow the trail of bodies.

His laughter trailed off into a thoughtful tone.The breadcrumbs are for you, my halfling. But perhaps I should not make it so easy. You don't seem as disturbed by the deaths I left for you as I thought you would be. Perhaps I should try harder, hmm?

Darkan? What does that mean? Damn you—

I jerked myself out of my mind. “We have to go. We have to go now.”

ChapterTwenty-One

How best to make myselfpretty bait for an Old One? I wasn’t a practiced liar. So the best lie to tell was the lie that he wanted to believe.

That I loved him, reluctantly, in spite of myself.

That I needed him, and feared his anger.

That I craved him, and was willing to submit—just enough—to save my people.

The lie had the advantage of being close enough to the truth that I fearedIbelieved it.

I hadn’t understood why I was so important to him. Why he was willing to kill. Had slowly accepted that this was more than a male in heat—he’d called me his anchor.

With the weight of our newly revealed history, I understood better. Raniel had been right to push me away when I was twelve. I’d been on the cusp of a shift in my feelings, my developing desire. If he’d begun to feel the first stirrings of heat then, he would have had to make a decision. Claim me because in the long run I would be his anyway. . .or err on the side of honor. Even if we were bonding, I’d still been barely out of childhood. The High Fae still considered some acts crimes.

“Aerinne?” Numair asked softly. “Are you still well?”

“I’m fine.”

And if the Old One thought I was the key to his sanity, then there was little he wouldn’t now do to keep me at his side. We’d all miscalculated, even Nora. But then, no one but Renaud had been in possession of all the facts, and I’d been cagey with what information I had as well. I’d been trying to protect myself, and the House to some extent.

There's good in you,I said as Numair, Juliette, and I ran. Following, yes, the trail of bodies.

Thunder rumbled overhead, lightning nestled in dense dark clouds, and a gentle patter of rain drifted down.

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