Page 191 of A Cursed Bite
A sharp, cold smile twists his lips. “Why serve the beast when you can serve its master?”
“All this time, we invited you into our home, showed you trust, we?—”
“The Enduar King showed me that which he had to. There is no loyalty between us. And you, with your pretty projects. Your lovely devotion. You don’t even lock your doors.”
… What?
I don’t think I voice the thought, but he smiles.
“A bit of glamor, and I could get near your house. A bit of persuasion, and it was easy to slip past your utter lack of protection.”
I blink rapidly. Glamor?
The man at my door, Daniel.
“Are you telling me that you were?—”
“Yes. Your last lover. I found him shortly after arriving in the city. It was easy to break his neck, simpler yet to steal his face. And it worked perfectly to be near you long enough to activate this little magical marvel.”
He taps my leg.
I kick at him, and Vann’s name freezes on my lips.
He’s gone. It’s just me.
One more slicing pain shifts over my foot.
“There,” he murmurs, satisfied. “At last.”
I pant, my body shaking as I clutch my side, blood soaking through my gown. “What did you—what did you do to me?”
Thorne does not meet my eyes.
Instead, he lets the white magic flow over my legs. A shifting mass of runes glows over my thighs, shins, and knees. Heat pours over my skin.
Hot, and powerful.
Then, in the back of my mind, a voice I haven’t heard in days speaks.
Well done.
Not Arion’s voice. The other one… the second voice. My eyes unfocus and refocus.
“TheCumhacht na Cruinnehas been hidden for centuries. Andsomehow your people found it,” he says, casually, as though he has not just carved something from my body, as though I am not trembling before him. “A force strong enough to destroy the unkillable.”
My breath hitches. How long had this plan been in motion? He went to Enduvida to meet a human woman. And then he gave me a gift. During all that time, was he just waiting like a snake in the grass?
Thorne leans in, voice soft as silk.
“Strong enough to kill Mrath.”
I stop breathing.
“When your queen first found it, I took back a part, just enough, and hid it. And now,” he holds up the magic swirling in his palm, “I finally have a proper gift to give my king.”
The end…for now.
