Page 233 of Blade of the Nightking

"Thalassis confirmed it." His voice cracked like a whip. “Or did you miss the part where he thanked me for wiping them all out?"

Everything inside me went cold.

"He wasn't speaking to me, Eidra." Rìan's silver eyes bored into mine, every word a fresh slice across my skin. "He was speaking to your mate."

The world shifted beneath me.

When Thalassis had spoken of the Eidrae… he'd been looking at Rìan, but seeing Aedric. He’d been praising Aedric.

Inside me, my magic swirled into a sudden vortex. I barely registered hitting the floor.

"No..." I groaned. My heart splintered into a million jagged pieces.

He lied to me.

When we'd swum together in the cave beneath Solmire. When he'd told me his story. When he'd bared his scars to me for the first time.

All of it… lies.

I didn't know Aedric at all.

My agony radiated from me, pulsing outward until it filled the room. The betrayal consumed every thought. What else had he hidden from me? Everything I thought I knew about him—everything I'd loved about him—had any of it been real? Had I been such a fool, so desperate to believe in him, that I'd ignored every warning simply because he told me he loved me?

I pressed my palms into my eyes, fingers tangling in my hair. My magic whirled through me like a tornado, rising to meet me. It gorged itself on the remains of my shattered heart, and I let it. I welcomed it. I craved the numbness. Anything was better than feeling this.

Strong hands closed around my wrists, prying them away from my face.

"No, Eidra," he said. "Stay with it. Stay with me."

His face was drawn with grim concentration, silver flecks dancing in the depths of his eyes. The touch pulled me back to the present, back to the room, back to the undeniable reality that the Dark Prince was kneeling before me, my hands clasped in his.

I tore myself free.

"Tell me," I demanded, my voice shredded raw. I had to know.

Rìan was a dark blur, wavering through my tears. "What do you want me to tell you?"

"The truth," I whispered. "No lies."

His gaze locked on mine, solemn and unflinching.

"Eidra." He said firmly. "I won't ever lie to you."

A wet laugh escaped me. "No?" My hand pressed against my chest, where the pain was almost too much to bear.

"No."

"You tricked me. You manipulated me. You used me. You—" The words caught in my throat.

He'd done all of those things, yes. But he’d never lied.

If anything, he'd only ever been cruelly honest.

Another laugh escaped me, brittle and broken, and with it the last of my composure. Tears spilled freely down my face.

Rìan didn't move. He simply knelt there, holding my gaze as though he meant to keep me from falling apart.

He was the eye of the storm. And I was the hurricane.