Page 85 of To Catch A Rogue

Lark's eyes held shadows he was afraid he'd never understand. "I came back because I knew what you were walking into better than you did. Charlie, you gave me no choice. You wanted to steal from the most dangerous man in the most dangerous court in this world. "

He scraped a hand over his mouth. "You came for me? To protectme?"

A flush of color crawled up her throat and she looked away. "Yes. Mostly."

"Mostly?"

He voice hardened. "There's a very small part of me that wanted to see him again."

"Who?"

"Sergey."

A chill ran through him. Oh, hell no. He recognized that look in her eyes.

"Lark," he growled, "what are you planning?"

"I want to ruin him," she said, shoving her hands against his chest so that his hands broke from her shoulders. "I want to destroy him. I want to plunge my fucking knife through his black heart so he can never, ever hurt anyone again.

"He killed my brothers and my sister," she hissed. "He slit their throats while I watched, and hesmiled. He tortured my mother to the brink of death. I was too young to do anything about it. Too frightened. But now I'm not. I've spent years learning how to fight. I've spent years dreaming of his face and what I'd do to him if I ever came across him again. I want to drive a knife into his heart and see the look in his eyes when I tell him who I am."

Bad. This was very, very bad.

"Lark, he's no less dangerous."

"I know." She turned away.

"And we're not here for revenge." Kneeling on the edge of the bed, he reached out hesitantly and caught her knee. "Our mission is to rescue the Duke of Malloryn. This is a dangerous country. We're out of our depths and getting out of here with our lives is—"

"I know! Do you think I,of all people, don't know how much danger we're in?"

Heat blazed in her eyes, and Charlie shut up. He couldn't quite take in the enormity of what she'd just told him, but some part of his brain started working. She didn't want him to fix the problem. She wasn't telling him this because she needed him to talk her out of trying to murder Sergey Grigoriev.

No. This had to be bringing up every bloody memory she owned of the past.

He knew how that felt.

Charlie reached out and drew her into his lap, wrapping his arms around her. "All right."

"All right?" she whispered, tilting her face to his.

"Thank you for telling me." He swallowed the lump in his throat and rested his chin on top of her hair. "You shouldn't have to be alone through this."

As if the words soothed something within her, Lark slumped in his arms, her own threading around his neck. "I'm not going to kill him. I want to. But I know how dangerous it is."

Charlie turned his face into her hair, breathing in her floral soap. "Of course, we could just allow Obsidian to do it. Balfour already wants him to kill Sergey."

Lark stilled.

And there was the one thing she hadn't breathed a word about.

"Obsidian? Is he...?"Your brother?

Lark shook in his arms. "He has nomarque du sang."

"Have you told him any of this?"

"No!" Lark shook her head desperately. "He can't be my brother. He doesn't look like us. He doesn't have themarque. What if this is just another of Balfour's tricks?"