Page 161 of Blade of the Nightking

But Rìan stepped into my path. He crossed the room and went straight to the girl.

My stomach dropped. What was he going to do? Strike her? Kill her? What would he cut from her next, now that she’d discovered he was back?

He crouched down in front of her. Then he spoke. Too quietly for me to make out the words, his voice was little more than a low rumble. Slowly, hesitantly, Nadja lifted her head. Tears streaked her face, her jaw trembling as she looked up at him.

I took a step forward, every muscle taut, ready to intervene.

“... I’m not here. Not yet. Do you understand, Nadja?”

The fact that he remembered her name reignited my anger.

He knew her by name. Knew her on sight. And he'd still ripped out her tongue.

Rìan rose in one smooth motion, all lethal grace and deadly poise, as she staggered to her feet. Even from where I stood, I could see her knees knocking together beneath her skirts.

“Go,” he said.

She turned to obey, then hesitated. Before I could make sense of what she was doing, she reached for his hand. I sucked in a breath, certain he would punish her for it.

But he never did. He simply let her take it.

Nadja leaned forward and pressed her forehead to the palm of his hand. She remained there for a long moment before straightening. Brushing the tears from her face into the shoulder of her dress, she hurried from the room.

What had I just witnessed? Were the people of the Court of Dusk such zealots that they worshipped Rìan despite his cruelty? How could she show such devotion to the male who’d taken her tongue?

The silver vanished from his eyes, leaving them dark beneath a face carved from granite. He held my gaze for a long, silent moment. Then, with a sharp turn, he strode toward the door. “I have work to do.”

“Is this where you'll be staying now, instead of the library?” I called after him through clenched teeth. I needed to know. If he planned to sleep here, I'd take his cot in the library. I'd sleep in the hallway if I had to.

“No. These rooms are Dannis's for when he returns.”

The words struck like a knife. Regret crashed through me at once, swift and overwhelming.

He stopped mid-step. When he turned back toward me, something had changed. There was a dangerous alertness in his expression that hadn't been there before.

“What?”

The single word made my stomach plummet.

He took a slow step toward me, and I became abruptly aware of everything he was. The breadth of his shoulders. The impossible height of him. The vastness of the power he carried, like a universe hidden beneath his skin.

He dipped his chin, fixing me with that predatory stare. “What are you hiding?”

Was I really that obvious? My pulse stumbled. I couldn't tell him. I couldn't tell him that Dannis was already dead. That Levinica had learned the truth after I'd realized it myself.

If I told him, our bargain would become worthless. What reason would he have to sever the bond if I had nothing left to offer? He'd have to let me live—we were still tethered by the magic I'd siphoned from him—but freedom was another matter entirely. He could lock me away for the rest of my life. Keep me under guard where I could never threaten him. Never threaten his plans.

And Aedric would never be saved.

I couldn't tell him.

I forced my expression back into the same resentful glare as before.

“Levinica had a theory about the map of the wells.”

His face didn’t move an inch. “Tell me.”

I swallowed hard. “She thought we were looking at the wrong map. That The Book of Old Tales might be older than we thought—from a time before the Dusklands were severed from the rest of Elantis. When the continent was still whole.”