Page 29 of Tales of a Deadly Devotion
‘I don’t know if you remember everything.’ He swallowed. Wary. As if I wouldn’t remember. Wouldn’t remember the last thing I’d wanted.
Him.
That he’d come for me.
‘I remember,’ I whispered, that answer bringing back the horror of that darkness, of the beasts in the pit and all the things I’d done to contain it. The hollow ache of my magic inside of me, as if it too were haunted by the truth of what we’d seen.
Yet then my eyes moved to the table, where those Kysillian letters remained.
‘You’re learning Kysillian?’ I asked, unable to stop the strange warmth that swooped through me at the thought. That he’d try where nobody else had before.
‘I thought it might settle you,’ he answered quietly.
I wanted to smile at the thoughtfulness of it. Yet all that remained was guilt. Those fey murdered beneath that house. For nothing but madness; for stories and lies. A war that had torn my life apart. Cost my parents their lives. All for peace so it never happened again.
‘They lied,’ I whispered. After all those wars and death. After losing everything, this darkness remained. Unrelenting and I couldn’t see a way out. ‘Nothing changed, did it?’
His jaw tightened as if with the urge to deny it.
I cannot lie to you, Croinn.Only now it didn’t feel like a comfort, but a curse. When all I wanted was lies. To be told it would all work out. That all my fears were wrong.
‘I never anticipated this. I should have.’ His brow lined with the weight of his thoughts. How easily he blamed himself,despite being the only one trying. ‘The Council are scrambling for a reason for their anomalies.’
‘Anomalies,’ I scoffed, wincing as the motion pulled at my tender ribs. I pressed my palm to them, taking a seat on the bench. The cushions moving of their own accord behind my back to support me.
‘Lord Percy is still in hiding. Denying all charges.’ Emrys’s tone darkened, watching me closely, especially how I guarded my right side.
I shook my head, hating the burn of childish, useless tears in my eyes. The agony of that truth gouged too deeply into my chest. ‘They won’t do anything to him. Not for any of this. Master Hale lied.’
My anger felt like a poisonous knot in my throat. The world was falling apart, and yet Master Hale had said peace was possible? That my indenture in that horrible place would be worth something. That fey would gain something from it.
No. They’d died in a pit in those woods. Brutally and without anyone to even remember them. Just like Daunton.
He should have let me go. Yet he’d kept me. Trapped me like a pet in a cage and now I didn’t know the way out. Smothered by the pretence of safety, because in the cocoon of those lies I couldn’t see. Didn’t allow myself to feel what was now burning in my blood.
Vengeance.
‘Kat.’ Emrys’s voice pulled me back, still here with me, yet out of reach. Hesitant. His expression unreadable as a new fear bloomed in my chest.
Another memory of fire and rage. Of the chaos I’d summoned and how easily it had rendered everything to ash.
‘Are you afraid of me?’ The words slipped so quietly from my lips.
‘No.’ He crouched before me instantly, so close, catching my chin gently between his finger and thumb. The leather of his glove cool against my skin. ‘Never, Croinn.’
Breath slipped more easily between my lips as I watched the colours shift in his eyes, the paleness of them to the depths of the black at the rim.
There is a prince that sleeps beneath the earth. Serus.The ancient hymn echoed through my thoughts but I pushed it away.
I’d felt the evil of this world, the bite of its cruelty, and I knew that monsters came in many forms. Most just as simple men. As I looked at Emrys now drenched in that soft morning light, I knew those stories were nothing but lies.
There was nothing evil in him, not when the barest brush of his magic chased every fear from me. Made me wish for nothing else but the comfort of him.
I caught his hand before he could let it fall away.
Amartis.I’d said those words. I’d meant them with every fibre of my being. Known they were true the moment I’d seen my father’s hilt in his grasp. That it had allowed Emrys to summon it.
I turned over his gloved hand, running my fingers against the soft leather. ‘Why are you wearing gloves?’
