Page 82 of The Discovered
He grasped my chin and narrowed his gaze. “Is that understood?”
Spots formed in my vision as I ran out of oxygen. He released me just before I succumbed to the blackness. With a flick of the wrist, he sent me stumbling backward, catching myself on my forearms as I gulped in air.
He sighed. “Lovely. I’ll see you tomorrow. Don’t hate Daelon too much. He was merely following orders.”
He turned to leave, stopping in the doorway. “If you stop and think about it, I was the only one telling you the truth this whole time. If only you’d listened.” He clucked his tongue. “Your time with the humans has made you stupid and naïve.”
I vaguely heard him speak to Taryn, followed by his booming laughter before the slamming of a door. The atmosphere was quiet for a moment, and I was relieved to feel Lucius’s suffocating energy leave along with him.
“You all right, love?” Taryn asked as she appeared in the doorway, her smugness softening at my no doubt pitiful appearance on the floor. “You look like shite.”
I laughed in surprise, the act unleashing all manner of pent-up emotion. The laughter quickly turned into sobs as I buried my head in my hands. I tried in vain to reel myself in as I lost it in front of this stranger, but the more I fought the more hysterical I became.
Wind whistled and bore down upon the windows next to us, and I was vaguely aware of what sounded like hail beginning to pour down outside.
“Whoa.”
“Can you just leave me alone, please? I want to be alone.”
I lifted my head to see Taryn pulling open the blinds to stare out the window, her dark brows drawn together as she turned back to me. “So, you were the one who cursed the castle with all of that end of days business,” she said, crossing her arms and throwing me an accusatory look. “I was interrogated rather intrusively over that.”
I shook my head, sniffling. “I have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about.”
She pressed her lips together then shrugged. “Well, all right then. If you don’t want my company I sure as hell am not going to beg ya. Tomorrow we can steal some of Daelon’s wine and get drunk in the gardens, yeah? That always makesmefeel better.”
Still trying to stop my hysterical sobs, I looked up at her in an incredulous confusion.
“Right, sorry. Reading the room.” She raised her eyebrows and backed away. “Daelon wanted me to sleep on the couch until tomorrow, but you seem to be a lot more powerful than him, so I think I’ll listen to you instead. I’m in the quarters to your left. Have a good night. Or justa night, I guess.”
I stared at her blankly. Somehow her incoherent rambling had actually seemed to calm me down.
“Oh, and don’t try anything stupid. There are guards everywhere, obviously.”
Not to mention I was bound from using teleportation magick. I clenched my fists, watching her leave as my power stirred.
I shoved it away. I didn’t trust it anymore.
Chapter24
Ihad no idea how long it had been since Daelon betrayed me. I couldn’t be sure of anything other than that I wasn’t going to be able to sleep tonight. In the dark and quiet, I could think only of him. I had never felt so alone, not even as a newly orphaned child in a strange city in a foreign country.
My mind ran through all of our time together, and I simply couldn’t reconcile the Daelon that told me I belonged to him with the Daelon that dismissed me with such coldness in his eyes.
I’d managed to drag myself into the bathroom for a much-needed shower, relieved that despite the unexplainable archaicity of the castle, it still had modern amenities. I’d found some kind of nightgown in the dresser and called it a night.
I tossed and turned, the intensity of my rapidly shifting emotions spinning my magick out of control. I knew I was the reason it was raining down huge balls of ice outside right now.
I shot up with a start at the sound of a door opening and closing in the distance. Quiet footsteps sounded from the living area, and I considered if it was morning already and Taryn was sneaking back in. I wondered idly if her job as mybabysitterwas a permanent position.
At least it wasn’t Daelon’s job anymore.
I was seething again at the thought of him as my bedroom door eased open slowly. I pulled the sheets over myself, and my heart raced when I recognized the intruder as Daelon himself.
“Get the fuck out,” I hissed.
He held a finger to his lips. “Áine, listen.”
“No,” I choked. “I never want to hear another word out of your mouth. You fulfilled your mission. You managed to gaslight me, break my heart, and gather your intel. Now leave me the hell alone.”
