Page 102 of The Crown of the Dark Prince
“I think he might have been picking up a slightly different emotion from me.”
I chewed on my bottom lip and he stared at the small motion. “And whatwereyou feeling, Your Grace?”
“Well, I was thinking about how good you looked when you were riding me last night, and imagining bending you over backwards the second I get you alone. So, you can probably imagine.”
My cheeks flamed, but I pressed myself closer to him. “Poor Kent.”
Clay’s mouth started a trail of kisses along my jaw, finding their way to nibble on my earlobe. “Lucky me.”
“Hey lovebirds!” Rankor’s voice shattered the moment. He stood on the porch with his arms crossed over his broad shoulders, his grin replaced by a furrowed brow. “She’s awake.”
Chapter Twenty Nine
The room felt like it might crack under the weight of unspoken tension.
Kent stood by the window, his back to us, fingers gripping the sill with a force that made the veins in his arms stand out. He hadn’t said a word since we arrived, hadn’t even spared Camilla a glance. Rankor, in stark contrast, leaned forward in his chair, his sharp gaze fixed on her like a blade pressed to her throat. Neither moved, but the energy between them was sharp enough to cut.
Clay stood near the hearth, his arms crossed tightly over his chest, his arms nearly completely black. His breath came slow and controlled, but the twitch in his jaw betrayed the restraint it was taking to keep from exploding.
It was Elaina who lingered closest to Camilla, her hands deft and deliberate as she adjusted the cloth on her forehead. She didn’t look at any of us as she murmured, “She’s stable enough. You can ask her questions.” But the way her shoulders squared and her body angled slightly toward Camilla made it clear—she was prepared to shield her patient, no matter what.
No one moved. No one spoke.
Camilla herself lay motionless on the couch, her gaze heavy-lidded but sharp as it slid over each of us. Her expression was unreadable as she looked at Rankor, at Clay, at Kent, and then, finally, at me. Her eyes lingered, dark and unsettling, before drifting closed again.
Clay caught my eye and gave a subtle nod, a silent command to take the lead.
I exhaled shakily, stepping forward and lowering myself into the seat across from her. My fingers tightened into a knot in my lap, the tension in the room pressing down like a hand around my throat. I took one last steadying breath, then spoke.
“There are things I haven’t told you all,” I began, feeling the eyes of Rankor and Kent lock on me. “There are aspects of my powers that are… unprecedented. Historically, it seems, there hasn’t been another Descendant as powerful as I am.”
Kent frowned, confusion etched on his face. “We know this.”
“Let her finish,” Clay commanded.
I took another steadying breath, my gaze fixed on the intricate patterns woven into the rug at my feet. “A few months ago, I visited Camilla. I… I asked her to explain why she’d done what she did.”
All eyes turned to Camilla, a shell of the beauty she’d once been. Her once-vibrant form was now frail and diminished, her dark hair dull and thinning, her skin sallow and pulled taut over her bones.
Her voice was barely more than a rasp. “I found a prophecy. It foretold of a Descendant of Hyrax who would lower the Veil.”
“That’s not possible,” Rankor protested, tightening his jaws.
“That’s what I thought,” Camilla replied. “Until -”
“Until I arrived,” I interjected, lifting my gaze. “Until I showed up out of nowhere with no explanation for how I got here.”
Silence fell as Kent shook his head slowly. “I don’t believe it. You wouldn’t do that.”
“She couldn’t!” Rankor echoed, his gaze flicking between us. “It’s not possible.”
“It’s not true!” Camilla snapped, pushing herself to sit up. Elaina rushed to her side, helping her and propping a pillow behind her back before she continued. “When I found it, I was practically out of my mind. I’d been hearing things, seeing things that weren’t real. Then I found that damn prophecy and my grandmother convinced me I had no choice but to turn to shadow magic to kill Thea.”
“I’ll have her head,” Clay growled, sounding more beast than human.
Camilla let out a bitter, hollow laugh. “Too late. She’s already dead.”
My breath hitched. “What?”
