Page 77 of Nightingale

But something between themhadshifted.

It was undeniable.

Even Rian felt a faint rumble of affection for the pretty female. She was attractive, very much so, with her mossy green eyes that turned more toward grey whenever she felt strongly about something, the bangs that drifted over her brows or the short chestnut hair that fell a couple inches lower than her chin. Even her skin glowed a beautiful sienna, rich with bronze where the sun hit it in certain spots.

The pressured lock on his door flipped, metal groaning in protest as the door creaked open, a form entering his chamber.

His visitor wasn’t unexpected.

Not after the calculated leers.

“You’re here.” The male drawled as the miserable shadows hid his face. No one had lit a candle for him, or even provided one for him to light himself.

“It would appear so.” Rian stood, rising from the horizontal position on the bed he’d taken up in an attempt to catch up on sleep before he was summoned before the Queen and her brood.“Can I help you?”

“I want to know why.”

“And I want to know why you’re in my room, but you haven’t given me an answer for that yet, so why should I give you one?” He ground out, angling himself in an attempt to see his company better. His feet met the floor and he cracked his spine.

“I’m surprised it wasn’t Regulus, since he was the one I’d been corresponding with.” The darkness parted to reveal Eamin, his features neutral. “Imagine my disappointment to find you, standing on our doorstep like an impatient, hungry hound. Especially after I sent my little sister to take you out and instead she brings you here, of all places. Imagine my shock.”

Confusion bolted through him, “What do you mean by that?”

“Has no one filled you in, Rian?” Eamin snickered, his cream tunic rustling as he tucked his hands into his pockets and took a turn about the long room. “Regulus and I have been sending letters for the past three years, regarding my sister. He was supposed to take her out, and yet it seemed he failed to do even that. So when I heard that a Moordian Prince arrived at our gates, I wasn’t expecting the youngest of the litter.”

Rian’s body went loose, understanding filling him like drops of sand in an hourglass as they fell, one at a time. “You were the one that told him what she looked like, when she was coming, and who she was going after. You’re the reason she was caught in the first place.”

He didn’t try to deny it, seemed to bask in it.

“I was hoping to get rid of her without getting my hands dirty, but it seems as though you’ve left me no option.” He spun on his foot in a clean sweep, “Why did you bring her back here, Rian?”

He didn’t back down, meeting his challenge with just as much fury. “Versus what, leaving her to rot in my father’s castle? Leave her to perish an uncomfortable, boring death? You take one look at her and tell me thatthat’show she’s supposed to die.”

Anger swept through him at the idea of her lovely body slowly rotting away in the locked room, at the loss of light in her eyes, the sallow expression that she would have gained over time. In her three years, he’d already begun to see signs of it, the contemplation of throwing herself out the balcony and ending it all.

“You could have killed her.” Eamin suggested with a wicked smirk. “You could have left her on the road, fed her to the Blacklegs even. You could have wiped your hands free of her and been praised by your father even, for taking down a Greenvass.”

“Are you trying to convince me to kill her?” Rian interrogated with a snap, “Because I won’t do it.”

He’d promised Castil he wouldn’t.

“Why, Rian?” The male asked quietly, dangerously, judgmentally. “Has she managed to sink her little claws into your heart? Has she wriggled her way into your mind like a filthy earthworm? Has she swam deep into your soul and made a home for herself there?”

He shoved him back, tired of whatever game the slippery eel was trying to play with him. “Get out of this room, Eamin, before I find the most dull item in here and smash your skull in with it. Trust me when I say that I have no problem with killing you. I want to, so come on. Egg me on. Push my buttons and see just how far you can get before I snap. I won’t kill her because Irespecther. Yes, there is a bit of attraction that I feel for her. Is that what you wanted to hear?”

Eamin barked out a rough laugh as Rian firmly grasped a handful of his shirt. “Oh you poor, miserable soul. Youhavefallen in love with her, haven’t you?”

He didn’t answer, instead slamming the male against the closest wall with a dullthud.He grunted, eyes fluttering to the back of his head.

“I want to feel your hot blood running down my skin when Ikill you.” Rian brought his mouth to the Prince’s ear, so close that he could have ripped it off with his teeth if he wished. “I want to crack your skull open and drink wine from the remains, to spill it over your decaying corpse after I’m done with you.”

Eamin had the decency to look scared, fear darting back and forth between his cinnamon shaded eyes. His face tightened, muscles in his jaw working as he tried to figure out what to say next.

Rian beat him to the punch.

“You don’t touch a hair on her head, do you understand me?”

“Or what?” He coughed out, clawing at the arm that braced him against the wall. Rian held tight, refusing to let him go, to drop him as he dangled him off the ground a few inches to let his warning sink in further.

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