Page 44 of Seduced By Darkness

Was I right?Isthis revenge?

Or just the opening play in a sick and twisted game?

The prince of Evernight holds a knife to my throat with this knowledge, and I need to know how to protect myself from it.

* * *

It’s notdifficult to slip away from the Asturian camp.

The guards are all watching without.

And I’m the invisible daughter.

Throwing a cloak over my shoulders, I draw the hood over my hair and then slip into the forest, avoiding the bonfires and revelry as much as I can.

The little bower where I lay with the Prince of Evernight stands empty. There’s no one nearby, the party having moved closer to the lake. I don’t know if that’s an ominous sign or not.

Crickets chirp as I pace back and forth.

The moon picks out every single night-blooming Sorrow flower. They slowly unfurl, opening their faces to its soft light, little firefly lights dancing around their petals. Demi-fey by the look of it, stealing nectar until they’re Sorrow-drunk.

“You came.”

I spin around, one hand dropping to the hilt of the knife sheathed at my hip and the other staring into the shadows beneath the trees. My heart pounds with a mix of dread and something I can’t name. “Of course, I came.”

How could I not?

He can ruin me with a single sentence.

The same way he ruined me with a kiss.

“I didn’t think you were going to,” he says. “You would barely look at me today.”

“I was trying not to give myself away. You didn’t seem to have any such compunctions. Come into the light.”

Thiago seems to melt out of the shadows. Black leather encases his chest and shoulders in woven strips that delineate each hard muscle. His cloak flows down his back. The entire outfit is stark and imposing, the impact of it only heightened by the fact he towers over me. There’s no sign of a crown. No rings. Not a single hint that he’s royal.

He doesn’t need them.

He makes Etan look like some sort of dandelion seed of a lad, pampered and spoiled and soft.

Power lingers in the direct look he gives me. The predator is leashed for the moment, but there’s a hint of hunger in his eyes. I saw that look last night, as if he wanted to consume me. It’s there again right now, and I can’t help feeling the slick of heat that traces wet fingers between my thighs.

I can feel him again, teeth sinking into my shoulder as he thrusts inside me, a roughened growl echoing in his throat—

And no, I’m not thinking of that.

I can’t afford to.

Because that was last night, when he was merely a handsome stranger.

And now he’s the enemy with a knife at my throat.

“We need to talk.” His expression locks down hard and tight.

It’s like the words set me free. I hold up the note between two fingers. “So you said.”

“Last night—”