Page 408 of Flirting with Darkness

It’s the journey, Liesl, not the destination,he says cryptically.

I roll my eyes at him and gather the remains of my dress and boots, bundling them as best I can into one hand.

No need to bring those with you. It’ll only slow you down.

Right. What does a dead woman need with the scraps of a dress? I drop them to the ground, hoping the birds find the material suitable for nest-making.

He takes my hand in his and lowers his ward, then we’re off again.

It doesn’t register at first, that the king isholdingmy hand instead of it just resting on his elbow, until he strokes the inside of my wrist with his thumb.

Comfort. That’s all it is. He’s offering comfort to the poor human he’s leading to slaughter. I fight the urge to pull away. Even though everything in me wants to tell him not to bother comforting the monster who held him captive, unknowingly or not. That he’d make this so much easier if he were cruel. If he were the demon I thought him to be all these years.

Even still, I don’t retreat from his touch. I let him continue idly caressing the inside of my wrist as we hike along the trail.

I do not know how much time passes when movement in the shadows ahead catches my eye.

I pause, nodding toward it.

Leave it,he says to my mind.She got herself in. She needs to figure out her own mess.

She. She? I squint at the shadowy figure, trying to force my sight to sharpen.

He pulls me forward, and I keep walking until I can finally see what’s moving in the trees off the trail.

A woman.

She needs help! Look at her.

The king merely shakes his head and keeps staring forward, refusing to confront the poor woman, netted and dangling from a tree.

She’s caught in a net clearly made for an animal. Please. We need to stop and help.

But the king leads us right past her without so much as a glance.

I lock eyes with her, trying my best to apologize. I mouth the words, “I’m sorry.”

She gives me a small, resigned nod, and I notice that while she’s very comely, if not oddly dressed, she doesn't have the same unearthly beauty of the man next to me.

Wait! She’s human! We must—

She did this to herself, Liesl. She must figure her own way out. That is the way of things.

But she’s—

He stops midstride and turns to face me fully.Not everything works the way you think it ought to, little bird. She breached our glamours, every one of our wards and protections to keep humans from seeking us. Now she must find her own way or live with the consequences.

I suck my cheeks between my back teeth and with a more modulated tone, I continue.Helping someone in need is always the right action, you prig.

He lifts a single eyebrow at me.Says the woman who kept me locked in a box for years.

I tug on his hand, hard.Says the woman who released you despite being taught from birth you were the enemy.

He doesn’t take his time considering his response. He has it armed and waiting.I didn’t give you much choice in that, did I? And yet you still manage to say it from your morally superior high horse. This world doesn’t work the same as yours. Our values, our morals aren’t so black-and-white, and the sooner you come to see the truth in that, the better off we’ll all be. That human will either prove her merit or she’ll die. Those are her only options, and I wouldn’t dare interfere with the order of things.

He doesn’t say another word on the matter, simply marches forward, taking my hand with him whether or not I like it.

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