Page 77 of A Blade of Blood and Shadow
I’d think very carefully about invoking that name.
Like he was a god or . . . something much worse.
And the Watchman . . . What had he called him? Destroyer of realms?
At the time, I’d been unsure if the Watchman had beenreferring to his mother or Kaden himself, and I’d been too terrified to question it.
“Whatareyou?” I growled, my voice shaking despite my best efforts.
“I think you know that, too,” said Kaden. “Or else you wouldn’t be looking at me like that.” His voice was softer than I’d ever heard it — broken and resigned.
When he finally raised his head to look at me, his irises were no longer that stormy gray, but black ringed with silver.
“You’re a demon,” I whispered, horror clanging through me. “That’swhy you were there that night. You were” — I nearly choked on the words — “huntingme.”
“It’s not what you think.”
“Why should I believe you?” I cried, clutching his jacket tighter to cover my nakedness. “You’ve been lying to me this whole time!”
“I never lied to you,” he murmured. “I’m still half fae.”
I let out an incredulous laugh. Technically, faeriescouldn’tlie, but did the same rules apply to half-faeries?
“Lyra —” Kaden reached for me, but I jerked back, sliding off the other side of the bed and edging around with his jacket still covering me.
“Stay — away from me,” I hissed. Hot, angry tears burned in my throat, but I didn’t let them fall. I would not let Kaden break me — at least not let himseethat he had.
My hands shook as I gathered up my discarded clothing, yanking on my filthy pants and shoving Mankara’s manuscript into the pocket of my jacket.
As I donned my weapons holster, Kaden slid in front of the door.
I unsheathed the witchwood blade with an easybackhanded grip — easy, because I was a huntress. Created by the gods for violence and bloodshed.
My very bones called for it. I could end Kaden as easily as I’d dispatched that other demon. At least, that was what I told myself.
“Now give me the cipher and get thefuckout of my way.”
Hurt creased Kaden’s perfect brow, and his gaze was pleading as he held mine. I knew he wasn’t begging me to spare his life. He was begging me not to leave.
“Move.”
“Lyra, let me explain.”
“I amdonebeing manipulated and deceived.”
A defeated look swept across his face. Then he loosed a heavy sigh and held out his palm.
The cipher materialized in his hand, and I snatched it up.
“Nowmove, before I drive this blade through the festering pit where your heart should be.”
At those words, something in him seemed to shatter, and he stepped aside.
I stormed from the room without a backward look — mostly because I didn’t trust myself to leave if I gave him a chance to explain.
I didn’t stop running until I reached his entryway, hot tears streaming down my cheeks. I let the door slam behind me, taking huge strides down the street to put more distance between us while trying to focus on something besides the gaping hole in my chest.
I had the cipher, whatever it had cost me. And I had the book. I could unweave the wards that protected Silas’s house and rescue Imogen as I’d planned.
