Page 51 of What Is Dark Within Me

“Go on. With your new strength, you’ll make short work of it,” Nicolas said. The sentence was punctuated with a bark from Garm, who was already so high up she couldn’t spot him.

Well, there was no other way of getting out of the canyon, Aleja figured. She reached for the nearest boulder, gave it a tug to test if it was loose, and pulled herself up. Then she scrambled up a few more feet using a cluster of tree roots jutting from the side of the cliff.

“Go, Aleja, go!” Garm barked from the top. The words were so genuine, so joyous, that she laughed for what felt like the first time in months.

Garm was already by the car, frantically digging into the surrounding snow with paws that once again looked like amalgamations of human hands. It was impossible to avoid looking at Nicolas, leaning against a tree and staring at his dark nails as if they were waiting for a taxi to pull up. “I would have healed either way. Why did you take me to the Hiding Place and not back to the cabin? Then, I never would have found out about—”

He glanced up at her, his face noncommittal. “It bought us time. Plus, your grandmother was far more likely to listen if you were with me.”

“Gods, you’re such a bad liar.”

“No, I’m not. I’m the Prince of Lies,” he said with an infuriatingly boyish grin.

“Nicolas.”

“It’s the truth. Your grandmother and I are friends, but that doesn’t mean she’s there to fulfill my every beck and call. Half the time, she’s not even in the tower. Your presence drew her. Besides, you needed time to get a hold of your magic.”

She bit her lip and watched Garm move on to the back tires. If the dog kept up his pace, they might get the car out of the driveway in minutes. Which meant she was about to have the joy of another long, treacherous car ride with Nicolas in the passenger seat. Fucking wonderful.

He said you would regret humping his leg, said the voice.

I am not thinking about it, Aleja told her. Whoosh. See that? It’s my memories of the entire ordeal leaving my body.

“Why not just tell me the truth about what you did to my family? Why let me think you murdered them this whole time?” she asked, because once they were back in the car, she was going to blast whatever dumb CD her hand met first until they reached the city.

“It’s—”

“If you say it’s complicated one more time, Nicolas, I swear you will be walking down this mountain alone.”

He smiled at her. It was not a grin. It was not a condescending sneer. It was a genuine smile that made her feel off balance. “You’re smart. You look at things from every angle. You know the Otherlanders are liars and tricksters. Would you have believed me if I said your great-uncle was with healers in some distant fey court? Would you have accepted that your aunt is likely enjoying the sun on a Spanish beach right now?”

“Probably not,” Aleja admitted. “I would have thought you were trying to manipulate me.”

“Exactly. It was better if you heard it from your grandmother. Once I realized why the scrying mirrors couldn’t find your friend, I figured we would have to go there, eventually.”

“And if I’d never lit the black candle? If we’d never been bound, would I have spent my entire life believing all three of them were dead?”

Nicolas took in a sharp breath, and his silver eyes darted to the side. She didn’twantto see him like this. She wanted the old Nicolas back; the nonchalant, evasive Otherlander who, until recently, she’d believed was the source of every pain the last few generations of her family had experienced. Seeing him hesitate, seeing him seem to doubt his answers, was…

She didn’t know how she felt about it.

“It’s possible, if your aunt stayed hidden forever. When I made my deal with the Ruiz brothers, I couldn’t have knownyouwould be one of their descendants.”

A few pieces of stone in her mental fort crumbled away. She looked at her boots and shook the snow off her toe, unsure of how she could possibly have an answer to that.

Garm cleared his throat. “Um. The car’s ready.”

“I’ll drive,” Nicolas said, pushing off the tree.

Her first instinct was to deny him, but every part of her body felt heavy. “You can drive?”

“Of course.”

“You’re not going to plunge us off a cliff?”

“Depends on what music you put on.”

Within a few moments, they were traveling back down the snowy mountain roads, while Aleja pressed her forehead into the cool glass of the passenger side window. She didn’t realize she’d fallen asleep until her phone vibrated in her pocket as it connected to a network.

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