Page 72 of The Crimson Throne
“Not until you hear me out,” I try.
“I told you what would happen if you stayed.” Her eyes lock on mine. “I protect this land, and you are a threat.”
No one can hear us talking softly to each other; we probably look like we’re saying sweet nothings.
For a moment, I imagine we are. That I pulled her close simply so Icouldwhisper in her ear how I want to end the night by seeing what she looks like wearing that mask and nothing else.
Damn.
It was definitely an error to pull her close.
I shift a little space between us so I can breathe and get a good, strong grip on my runaway thoughts.
“I’m no threat, Alyth,” I promise her. “I’m staying, and I want to help you.”
She scoffs, but there’s a look in her eyes like exhaustion.
Does she have anyone helping her?
I spin us in a circle, the colored threads and lights whirling past us; we’re at the center of a star fall.
“I don’t need your help,” she says. I believe her. She doesn’t need anyone.
She doesn’t need anyone the same wayIdon’t need anyone. The same way I barely keep myself right on the edge of surviving, because who can I actually trust?
“Darnley and my father used me,” I whisper, my chest welling with anger, heat sweeping over me from the crowd and how close she is and all the questions looped around my neck like rope. “There’s a possibility Darnley’s the one who’s got the fae weapon that cursed me, and I’m gonna get it on the chance I can undo that curse. I’m not going anywhere until I’ve got that and answers to what he’s plotting with Cecil, which means I’m going to investigate Mary’s cock of a husband, and I can help you with that.”
She scowls at me but doesn’t speak. And the way we’re dancing now, she’s moving with me, not stiff and pushing to get away.
“I went hunting with the bastard today, did you know that?” I tell her.
“He was hunting?” Alyth shrieks. The music softens it. “When he was supposed to be attending his only son’s baptism?”
I nod. “Got rip-roaring drunk before we’d even come back. I left the prat in the stables, stumbling about with his equally drunk friends.” My eye roll is tight and barely conveys just how strenuous it was to spend a full day with the man, but I’ll gladly do it again and again until I solve this. “I know I can worm my way into his good graces more. I can get information from him, and I can give that information to you.”
She scoffs. “Can you? Because I should trust Cecil’s training?”
“Because I’m alive in spite of Cecil’s involvement in my life,” I tell her. Intensity wells up in me, makes my words come fast and low. “I grew up in London’s slum. I scrounged and scraped, lied and cheated, did all manner of things I’m not proud of, but I’m alive and here because I’m damn capable. Cecil isn’t a fool. He wouldn’t have trusted me with any of the missions he sent me on if I weren’t good at what I do. And I know you’ve been watching me, Alyth. I know you see how I pull on facades, same as you do. You know I’m useful to you.”
She sucks in a breath, but before she can voice more concerns, I press on.
“But I ain’t too proud to admit I’m in over my head with this magic business. I might not know what answers I find when I find ’em. But you can decipher what I get. We need each other, you and I.”
I can see my reasoning settling on her, the way her eyes shift over me, considering.
“What are you seeing?” I hear myself ask. “When you look at me like that.”
Alyth flinches, her concentration breaking. Lovely spots of rose-petal pink stain her cheeks, and the sight topples my focus as the color spreads down her neck, across her collarbone.
Where else does it go?
I snap my gaze up to hers, hoping she didn’t catch me staring, but her eyes are flicking around my head, seeing,seeing.
“Your aura,” she tells me. “I can see your intentions. Whether you’re telling the truth, or at least what you believe to be true.”
“Auras?” My eyes go to the ceiling, seeing the color swirling around the lights. “I think I see that now. Is it over the sky, like an oil slick? And you had some red around your hands when you stormed up to me.”
Alyth’s head cocks as she thinks. “No. That’s—that’s magic. Seeing auras isn’t for every Leth.”
