Page 90 of The Dark Prince
It was so, so much worse than mine.
It covered her entire face, instead of merely one side. A vicious claw mark ran from her nose down to the left corner of her lip, slitting the nostril open and exposing her teeth and jaw on the left side. Two other vertical slashes marred the bridge of her nose to her left cheek, and the final one had taken her left eye. The wounds themselves would have been bad enough, but with the witch, nothing was ever simple.
I knew that from personal experience.
The wounds had festered and rotted, burning away flesh and muscle and blackening whatever was left.
That wasn’t even the shocking part. Aella turned on her side, her head burrowed into the chest of a man lying next to her, his arms protectively around her.
Maddeus.
And Aella.
A headache throbbed at my temples.
Isadora reached for my hand, giving it a squeeze and pointing with her free hand. “Your leather mask. You don’t mind, do you?”
My eyes flicked to the comforter. Sure enough, one of my white leather masks lay on top of the blankets.
My first thought was to say I couldn’t give a damn about my masks while my second in command was in bed with my half-sister, but I swallowed the outrage and tried to examine the myriad of feelings swimming in my head.
I used to be wildly possessive of my masks. I was never seen without one, and usually even slept with them on. Now … I had been walking around without one, and no one had treated me any different. I wondered if it would heal at all left to the open air, like Isadora had insisted.
“She can have it,” I said softly instead. My eyes narrowed at Maddeus, snoring softly next to Aella.
“Tyr,” Isadora cautioned me, a bark of warning in her voice.
I reached a hand out and pressed down on Maddeus’s boot, shaking it. He flinched immediately, his eyes shooting open and his free hand drawing his dagger and pointing it at us.
“Hmpf. Terrible reflexes. If you must canoodle with my half-sister, work on that.”
Maddeus blinked the sleep out of his eyes, staring at me as if unsure if I was joking or not. Isadora slapped my shoulder playfully.
“So.” I shot a look at Aella’s sleeping form.
Maddeus scooted closer to her, protectively.
I sighed. “She’s going to be queen, you know.”
Maddeus frowned. “So the king is—”
“Dead,” I finished succinctly. No sense dwelling on it.
His jaw dropped. “So you’re—”
“Nope. She is.” I grabbed Isadora’s hand and held up the signet ring on her thumb.
Maddeus’s brow furrowed, then his face went blank.
“I—”
“Indeed.”
We stared at each other until Isadora gave an exasperated sigh. “Honestly, I will never understand men.” She turned to address Maddeus. “There will be a feast at dinnertime if she awakes and is up to it. Otherwise, take dinner here in your chambers. Once she recovers, I would ask that you travel with her back to Hythe, so the city has a rule in place.
Maddeus took all of this in stride, only sneaking a look at me once to see how I felt about it.
“Isadora, can you excuse us? I need to speak to Maddeus. About leaving my service,” I added quickly, seeing the storm gather on her face. “It’s a northern thing,” I tried and she sighed and relented.
