Page 147 of A Pact of Blood

I think I need to lie down. Perhaps I’ll wake up and discover I already fell asleep and this is all a bizarre dream.

Dreams. The one vision Elox sent comes back to me: the two lambs I was holding.

Great God help me, my godlen knew. He tried to tell me.

But no version of my husband that I’ve interacted with has struck me as remotely lamb-like.

“It’s worked until now,” Marclinus—no, justMarc—repeats, his expression turning more serious again. “But not anymore. Linus has gotten… paranoid. He doesn’t trust you. He thinks you’re trying to upstage and undermine us—he’s had all sorts of mad theories.” He shakes his head. “We tested you because he insisted, and all it’s done is risk ruining the partnership I can see we should have. Not to mention the commotion he caused in Lavira.”

“Oh.” A lot of pieces are clicking into place in my head. The sudden shifts in mood, the moments when my husband has appeared frustrated with or even unaware of our past conversations. All the ways he’s tried to provoke the princes and perhaps other members of his court as well as me.

Marc makes a disgruntled sound. “He’s even soured this blessing—what should be one of the happiest moments of our marriage— He’s been taking mirewort because he felt itwas too soon to completely enmesh you in the family. Itoldhim that you and I slept together more than once when we were at the Rexoran palace, but it’s always been him otherwise, and he couldn’t believe the timing—but you just confirmed it. He’s fucking insane.”

I look at the man seated next to me in a daze. “Is that why you’re telling me now?”

Marc’s eyes harden to steel. “I’m telling you because I’m tired of living only half a life. I can’t stand by while Linus destroys everything that should be mine… I need you to help me kill him.”

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