Page 109 of Shadow's Heart

Mina gazed from face to face, taking in her loving uncles: steady yet fierce Trehan, combative Viktor, and hidden-depths Stelian, who sipped his bloodmead flask. Their love for her united these disparate beings. Looking at them now, she could scarcely believe that their lines had warred for centuries.

“I decreed them not to be concerned,” Lothaire added, “but they persist—like your obvious feelings for the sorcerer.”

All eyes on me.Mina was back at the very place where her shyness had taken root in her youth. Her king’s words echoed in her mind.

. . . so socially inept. . .in my court . . . pains me.

A thousand visits here in the past had given her no hint of this coming night—the night she would stand before all her loved ones with her heart a bloody mess and her emotions in ruins.

Now that the plague no longer bolstered Mina, her shyness should reappear in the fertile ground that had once made it thrive.

In a pained voice, her brother said, “I still don’t understand how you fell for someone who was sworn to kill me.” When Mirceo rubbed his throat, Caspion’s eyes flickered black with feeling, still haunted by how close he’d come to losing hisnewly found mate. Despite Mirceo’s incredible recovery rate, the demon flinched every time her brother adjusted his bandage.

Mina had shared Caspion’s vigil over Mirceo, had bonded for life to her brother-by-fate. She’d once asked Mirceo who would take care of him, and she had taken it upon herself to do so; the two of them hadn’t known that in a different world, a young demon had already been born to fulfill such a sacred duty.

Lothaire rubbed his own throat and muttered, “I know that feeling, boy.” Ellie patted his hand sympathetically, thoughshehad been the one who’d nearly beheaded him during their courtship. That had been an accident; Adham’s strike hadn’t been.

Mina had already been over this with Mirceo, but she quietly said, “Adham told me he had the ability to break vows.”

Muffled groans all around.

“The enchanter lied about being able to lie?” Mirceo said. “Sounds legit.”

With a laugh, Lothaire told her, “You got duped. It happens to the best of us Dacians. Literally, the best of us—me. A goddess of vampires played me for a fool. But fortunately I was not in love with her whatsoever.”

Through her haze, Mina had tried to analyze every interaction, every word, every smile between her and the sorcerer. “You and Kristoff saw how Adham fought to reach me. Why doubt his devotion? Kristoff doesn’t.” As he’d absently said, “The Sandman loves you. Something else is at work.”

What could explain Adham’s actions? If Mina could only think . . .

Caspion gently asked, “Did Silt tell you he loved you?”

Adham. “Well, not precisely. But he said other things just as heartfelt, and he followed me to the hive, against all odds.”

Expression sympathetic, Ellie said, “Didn’t others go there too? When they all realized Nightside was dying?”

Mina admitted, “That’s true.” Though Enti had planned for Adham to stay and for Nightside to stabilize, the wily sorceress had prepared for other outcomes. She’d even attempted to make a scythe—for a Dacian swordswoman to clear a path through the hive so others could follow. Mina didn’t blame her.All’s fair in love and Lore.“But the fact remains that Adham and I are mated.”

Lothaire said, “I have it on good authority that Sorceri don’t have mates.”

“I beg your pardon?” Bettina stiffened beside Trehan, who took her hand.

Lothaire waved negligently in their direction.

Caspion, Bettina’s childhood friend, flashed her a look of sympathy.

This court was never going to believe Mina. The stout case against the King of Sand—including his past behavior with her and for the millennia before her—provided only one conclusion: a serial deceiver had repeatedly deceived her. Worse, he’d done exactly what he’d sworn to do from the beginning.

Hurt Mirceo to get revenge.

Her best guess was that he’d lied about being able to break a vow to the Lore and had meant to confess later. Maybe he hadn’t grasped how much control that vow would have over him.At his age, though?

Those rash words, said in the rage of his withdrawal, would curse them for the rest of their lives. One single instant—a spur of the moment—really had been like a metal spur jolting him into an action from which there was no known return.

Unless he was actually evil and had played her.

As soon as those doubts rose, she recalled the adoration in his eyes when he’d made love to her. She couldn’t have reached divinity on her own—and she hadn’t mistaken that destination. Mina softly said, “If we’re not mates, then why was he going tosacrifice his root power to Dorada? To become an Inferi for me?” Kristoff had told her about Adham’s plan.

At the rim of his flask, Stelian muttered, “That’s what hesaid. What hedidwas dissect my nephew’s neck.”

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