Page 45 of A Vow of Blood and Tears

There were a few times that I was spitefully grateful I was speaking a language no one else understood; this was one of them.

Bane watched my hands with uncertainty for a moment; had he understood? But he shook it off, wiping the back of his arm across the sweat on his forehead. My eyes dropped to the brawnyslab of his stomach without my permission, and I jerked them back up.

How strange to find parts of him attractive, but be horrified by the whole. But was it horror, really?

Yes, I decided, glancing at his teeth. Some horror, yes. But that was mitigated by the soul inside that blood-drinking shell, which must be why I could not get ahold of myself and keep my eyes where they belonged.

I wouldhaveto sleep with him eventually. I wanted to be less alarmed when that time came.

Did Edda ever paint you?I asked, my curiosity still aflame at what Bane had looked like before his choice to become a fiend.I suppose I should ask this in my journal, because you will read it tonight if it’s the last thing you do. There are too many things I’ve wanted to say to you to have them put off any longer.

“I apologize, my lady, but most of that was beyond me.” He looked apologetic enough that I briefly reached out and laid my hand over his. His skin was both velvet-soft and burning hot, running at a temperature much higher than normal for humans. With a quick flick, his bat-like ears swiveled upright and forward, quivering at the tips.

Only for now, I told him with my other hand, spelling it slowly.

Bane’s fingers flexed under mine, twitching ever so slightly, and then he laced his fingers through mine, bringing my hand up to kiss the back of it.

His lips were soft, careful to cover his teeth. I stared up at him, holding my breath, every cell in my body aware of his presence, the strength that had lifted a thousand pounds, and yet he still touched me as carefully as a man with a butterfly cupped in his hand.

My heart raced against my ribs, a rapid clip I couldn’t calm. Could he feel it?Hearit?

Bane stared into my eyes, still holding my hand. This must be what it felt like to be entranced by a predator, a deer with an arrow aimed for its heart… the rest of the world had vanished.

There was only the fiend, holding me in a gaze of soot and gold.

“If you’d like to stay out here with me, I would find your company to be very… very pleasing,” he said gruffly. “I… enjoy being around you.”

I smiled, curling my fingers around his a little tighter.

Yes, I wanted to say,I enjoy being around you, too, but I didn’t want to pull my hand from his oh-so-careful grasp.

So I just smiled at him, telling him with my eyes. Interestingly, his jutting cheekbones had darkened in tone, from ashen to a charred-gray hue. Could vampires blush?

I reached up, wondering what those sharp ridges felt like—were they bone, or as flexible as his ears?—

“By the ancestors, were you going to make me search the entire keep for you?” Wyn’s waspish tones brought me back to reality with an unpleasant jolt. “There’s more preparations to be made for tonight, unless you’dliketo be presented to the Rift-kin looking like a country bumpkin…? Also, Bane, two of the horses need shoeing and the farrier’s short a hand today.”

I blinked at the bloodwitch, resplendent in black silk today, a list in her hands. Of course.

“As foryou,” she snapped at Miro, billowing towards us in a flurry of silk like a bat out of hell, “If you’re not working on the commission, you might as well attend the drills.”

That sour tilt had returned to Miro’s smile; he bowed again, giving me an unreadable look from beneath his thick brows as he straightened. He left without another word.

I felt the tiniest flutter of shame that I’d managed to forget him entirely, not just once, but twice; but I didn’t think I could be blamed.

Not when my husband was so much more interesting than I’d bargained for.

He gave me a rueful glance, releasing my hand.

“I would apologize for stealing your wife, but honestly, I rather think I’ve saved you from distraction.” Wyn steered me away, towards the keep’s doors. “Horses, please. Don’t forget. Supply deliveries need to go out to Fog Hollow tonight.”

I glanced back as I was led away to far less interesting things, catching a last glimpse of Bane over my shoulder—as he flexed his hand, gazing at it intently, as though to read words I’d left behind.

Chapter 12

Bane

“This looks ridiculous.” I eyed myself in the mirror, smoothing the odd tailoring of the shirt that barely obscured my jagged, misshapen form. “Ludicrous.Absurd.”

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