Page 5 of Empire of Dark

I would leave on this very same road next year during a sunny summer day, just like today.

I could even picture it, descending down the winding road in the opposite direction, my eyes averting just as they did now from peeking down the extreme drop-off along the left side of the vehicle.

The road hugged the mountainside so tight that there were only two feet extra on the left of the SUV before the world dropped away. Nothing but a treacherous cliff that plunged into a valley hundreds of feet below.

Triaten sat on the perilous side of the vehicle. What would make me dizzy to look down upon, held his rapt attention.

Had he been on this road before?

It seemed like it. But that was my Uncle Triaten—he’d seen everything, done everything, and had his fingers in everything.

At that moment, he glanced at me and the side of his face lifted in a half-smile, almost a smirk, like he was chuckling at my silent assessment of him. Even as a telepath, he couldn’t read my mind. Or at least, I thought he couldn’t. Maybe I was wrong.

He looked back out the window and I eyed him.

He never could read my thoughts before, but it had been too long since we’d been anywhere near each other. Getting in the car with him yesterday after my plane had landed in the mountains was the first time I’d seen him in fifty years.

Maybe those years apart had changed his ability to worm into my mind—our connection either getting weak or his powersstronger. He never could read people once he knew them too well.

But maybe that’s what happened over time. He didn’t know me anymore.

Not that I had changed.

I poked his leg. “Are you smirking because you were reading my mind?”

His head swiveled, his dark brown eyes focusing on me. He looked tired, a shading of purple tinged under his eyes. Tired like he was juggling a lot. Which he always was. “You know I can’t read you, Ada.”

“I know you nevercouldread me. Past tense. I don’t know about now.”

“Not true.” He shook his head, his easy smile falling into place. “I read you perfectly fine until you were three years old. That’s when I lost you. When you started to be naughty and terrorize the household.”

“Lies.” I thwapped his arm. “I was never naughty. All my governesses loved me to no end.”

“I can’t help it if you don’t remember your own naughty years. I think you went through six governesses that year.” His grin went wider and he grabbed my knee, squeezing it. “And no, I can’t read you.”

I stared at him, my eyes narrowing as I studied his face. Triaten always was very good at lying to me. “Then what were you smirking at?”

“I was just thinking how pleased I was with myself.”

I blurted out a laugh, then coughed out a, “Pompous ass,” into my hand.

His eyes rolled upward, his head shaking.

“Kidding.” I nudged his thigh with my knuckles. “Tell me what your sudden explosion of ego has to do with.”

“I am pleased with myself because I somehow convinced you to leave Academy grounds. It makes me happy to see you in the real world. I was starting to doubt it would ever happen.”

My lips pursed, pulling to the side. “The Academy is where I belong.”

“I know you think that.”

“Iknowthat. But I owe you this. And you’ve never asked me for anything. Even if this was a weird ask.” My hand flickered out to the air in front of us. “But I think I’m up for the task. One year isn’t so bad and as long as the wrong people don’t get word of who and where I am, it will be fine.”

“You aren’t worried about the man I’m about to feed you to?”

“Feed me?” My eyebrows lifted. “Should I be worried? You said he would respect my wishes.”

“He will.”

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