Page 105 of A Promise of Peridot
I had promised to keep my distance, and now that she was finally finding happiness— I ran a hand down my face in aggravation and groaned into my palm.
“Would you like a small violin to play alongside your brooding?”
Turning, I spied Briar, unclasping her fur and hanging it up in the foyer. I shut my eyes and leaned into the leather, hearing only the tinkling of ice against crystal and the patter of shoes being kicked off. A brightness behind my eyelids pried them open, and I beheld the previously guttering fireplace now fierce and roaring as Briar slunk into the chair across from me.
“I preferred the dark.”
“Of course you did.” Briar smirked. “King of Darkness, Prince of Shadow... Don’t you tire of your own misery?”
“Yes,” I said honestly. “Who was your mysterious dinner with?”
“Another witch. One of the Antler coven back in Lumera.”
“Did they have any news?
“Broderick and Isolde are concerned. Word is spreading that they have aligned with Onyx.”
“But they haven’t.” Nobody but myself and the royals knew of our plans to wed Princess Sera to my successor. “They offered hardly forty people asylum.”
“I relayed as much, but my companion said they fear Lazarus will get wind of such notions.”
“Wonderful,” I growled. More complications. “I’ll send the prince to Shadowhold to meet with Lieutenant Eardley. They can find a way to contact his parents.”
“Plotting to have the Fae girl all to yourself?”
The fire snapped at us and I felt the licks of heat across my face. “I’m in no mood tonight, Briar.”
Her voice was softer when she spoke again. “What is it you hope to do in Crag’s Hollow?”
I had wanted to ask her this since we arrived. “Did you keep in touch with Esme over the years?”
“No,” Briar said, swirling her drink and staring down at the little caramel whirlpool she had created. “I haven’t spoken to her since we left Lumera.”
“She was like a daughter to you.”
“And she still feels betrayed like one. Her mother died fighting alongside us.”
“Think she feels betrayed enough to work with Amber?”
Briar pursed her lips. “Why do you ask?”
“Amber knows of her, somehow. I’m not sure how they found Esme, or what she’s offering them, but it’s worth finding out. We have no other leads on the blade. I’m fishing for a miracle.”
Briar clucked her tongue. “I doubt she can do much to aid your search. She inherited very little lighte from her mother, and none of her seeing abilities.”
“I know.” I shook my head. It didn’t make any sense.
Briar leaned in closer. “You shouldn’t have kept her from me.”
I had been waiting for this. “I know that.”
Briar’s mouth twisted. “And even if Esme somehow helps you find the blade... what then? You cannot save the girl, Kane.”
I held my face neutral. “Then I’ll go to the Pearl Mountains.”
The last and only trick I had up my sleeve. A theory from decades ago, that because the prophecy spoke of my father’s death at the hands of the second-born son, I might be able to carry out the deed in her stead. After my father, and Arwen, I was the closest to full-blooded that existed.
“Ah.” Briar clucked her tongue at me. “To take her place.”
