Page 163 of Serpent In White

“I mean, someone you know,” Rhiannon says quietly, aiming a defiant scowl at Drake, though she’s speaking to me. “Someone from your past… And he’s been manipulating you for years. Making you think you can’t—”

“Shut her up before I do it myself!” Drake roars, crowding the girl quickly, combatively.

I don’t think he would lay hands on her, but I’d rather not stand around and find out.

Abdiel comes between them, protecting Rhiannon while holding Drake back with a hand on his chest. “Alright, that’s enough,” he growls. “No good can come from attacking each other like this.” He angles his chin to the girl. “You have to stop. Even I can’t protect you from this mess you’ve made.”

Dismay frames Rhiannon’s face. I hear her regretting everything she’s done, but mostly for hurting Abdiel. She cares greatly for him.

“Secrets, secrets everywhere,” I sigh, waltzing up to the three of them. I place my hand on Abdiel’s shoulder until he steps back a bit. Then I move in close to the girl, cornering her while she backs up into the wall. “You come ontomyland, steal from my brother, then try to blackmail us into… what? Giving up control? Silly girl, you should know by now thatnothingis greater than control.”

She swallows visibly, her pink little lips quivering. “I just thought… I was just… trying…”

“You were trying to rally my people against me,” I growl inches from her face. “You were trying to take what’s mine. People on this land have died for less.”

I know, she thinks, even her thoughts trembling in fear.I saw it.

Every ounce of my fury burns at her through my eyes. “You. Know.Nothing.”

Backing up, I straighten and pull open the door, addressing Jeremy. “Lock her up.”

At those three words, my patrolmen rush into the room and grab the girl, tying her hands behind her back and hauling her away.

She shouts in protest as they drag her out of the house, but I ignore it, eyes stuck on my two men. My lovers, my friends, my family.

All the secrets, the betrayals. It ends now.

We need to get to the bottom of this.

“Darian, is that really necessary?” Abdiel pleads with his despondent gaze, forehead lined in concern for his friend. “Locking her up? Where are they even bringing her?”

“We have cells,” I breathe, exhausted from all this already. “On the mountain, there’s a hunting shack with a trapdoor leading down to a jail of sorts.”

He looks stunned but for only a moment before nodding, accepting the secret I’m sharing with him. “Do you use them often?”

“Depends on your definition ofoften,” I mumble. He flinches but says nothing. “Sweetheart, I know we still really need to talk.” I grasp his face in my palm, and my heart soars when he lets me, leaning into my touch. “There is much for us to discuss, but first, I must speak with my brother. Alone.” My eyes flit to Drake, and for the first time in a long time, I catch him wavering.

Abdiel nods. “Yes, sir.”

Resting his hands on my chest, he angles his face in close, so that our lips are hovering. There are so many things he wants to say, so many thoughts, questions, worries in his pretty head. But instead of voicing them, he simply presses a velvety soft kiss on my lips, enough to melt me into a puddle on the floor.

“Wait for me upstairs… in my bedroom,” I command, quietly, my tone wrapped in the fuzz of my lust and love for this beautiful boy.

“What if someone should see?” He asks, curious fingers tracing the lines of my torso through my shirt’s fabric.

I place another quick kiss at the corner of his mouth. “That’s the least of my worries right now.”

He nods once more and breathes slowly, backing up and leaving the room, his mind swirling as he does.

And now I’m left with my brother.

My lover, my partner, my Serpent… Holder of all the secrets.

We stare at one another for a while. Eyes locked, thoughts scattered, lips sealed. I’m really not even sure where to start. So I decide to go for a simple request…

“Tell me the truth,” I demand, though the moment the words leave my mouth, I fall to my knees. I kneel before him and rest my head on his legs, trembling at the impending revelation.

Rhiannon said he killed someone we knew… Someone from our past.