Page 82 of Seduced By Darkness

Thalia grabs me by the arm. “Vi,” she snaps. “We need to get her home. We need to get her back to Ceres. Now. None of this matters.”

“Is this what you call good faith?” I demand of the other queens, both of them watching emotionlessly. “She hascursedmy wife.”

Maren glances beneath her lashes at Adaia. “I saw no curse. I only saw her faint when she saw you. It seems her love for you has faded, Thiago.”

I stare helplessly at Lucidia.

She leans on her cane, her face ruthless and implacable. “You swore to abide by the treaty,” she tells me. “You should have been clearer in your demands of the Queen of Asturia.”

I never expected she would turn her own daughter’s brain to mush.

I stare down at Vi.

She loved me once.

She can love me again.

She just needs to be reminded of what she felt for me.

Adaia thinks she won this round?

Never.

Vi’s my hope, my light in the darkness. She’s the fucking destiny I’ve spent my entire life searching for. I won’t let a fucking curse tear us apart.

“Thiago?” Thalia lays a hand on my shoulder, searching my face for a hint of my intentions.

“We’re going home.” I cradle my wife to my chest. Dark hair drapes over my arm like a banner and though her eyelashes flutter, she doesn’t wake. “I’m taking mywifehome.”

“Three months, little prince,” Adaia mocks. “And if she survives then you must bring her back to me.”

Fury curls hot claws within me.

I could kill her now.

I could rip her heart—her soul—out of her chest with but a single thought.

And I want to.

But suddenly Eris stands between us—Eris who knows my Darkness only too well.

Don’t, her eyes say.

Vi is all that matters. I’ll make her fall in love with me again, even if it takes every day of the next three months. I will heal her. I will protect her.

After all, if this curse is spawned of hate, then lovemustbe enough to break it.

We’ll find a way.

I have twelve more years before Vi’s final choice will set us free of this horror, and even though my head is on the chopping block, I believe in her.

I have to believe in her.

“Power the portal,” I snap at Finn.

“It needs time to recharge,” he says in a quiet voice.

The power required to shift an entire party from one location to another is immense. While the Hallow draws from the leyline, scholars have argued that the well of power beneath it is not immeasurable. It needs time to bloat with magic again. Time to suck in energy.