“Thank you, oh gods, thank you, miss—”
The brute’s words are cut short as Seth slices his hand off clean at the wrist, the movement of his sword so brutally quickI barely see it. The man screams and thrashes, and Seth releases him, blood squirting everywhere.
“She’s myFUCKING SISTER, you imbecile! You laid hands onmy fucking sister.”
There’sthat rage. Seth’s shoulders shake as he yells, his anger reaching its full potential in mere moments. Or at least, I thought it was his full potential. A splash of the man’s blood lands on Seth’s face, and I watch as another level of malevolence reaches his eyes. “And now you’re making amessof my tent! Apologize to her right now, and I’ll cauterize the wound before you die.”
I suspect this request is less for my benefit or the man’s and more for the benefit of Seth’s tent not being completely drowned in the man’s blood.
“Sorry, sorry, sorry—” the man shouts in a voice that’s more a squeal than anything recognizably human. He sounds like a pig trying to escape the slaughter.
“You better fucking be sorry,” says Seth, grasping the stump on the man’s arm with sealing flame. I turn from the horrible sight, my stomach sickened by the smell of burning flesh. “You better fucking remember this. Because next time, it won’t be your hand.” I’m not certain the brute can hear Seth over his own cries, but Seth continues anyway. “The next time I get so much as ahintthat you’ve laid your hands on someone, I’ll take your cock. Do you hear me? Right down to the root. I’ll cut your fucking cock off, and we’ll see how much of a prick you are without it. Now,get out of my fucking sight,or I’ll take it right this instant.”
The man stumbles from the tent, clutching at his ruined wrist and knocking over a chair as he goes, sobbing all the way.
It was horrible to watch, but there’s a cruel little part of me that can’t help but feel like he got what he deserved, even if I wouldn’t have done the same myself.
With the man gone, Seth turns to me. Slowly, he withdraws his handkerchief from his pocket, methodically wiping the blood from his face. “What a fucking mess. Gods, doesn’t anyone have manners around here?”
He looks around the tent for a response, but we’re the only ones in it now. When no one answers, he turns his cruel eyes to me.
“Now, sweet sister,” he says. “I’ve heard you’ve been quite the busy girl. But before we get into all of that, tell me something, and answer me truly now. I’ll know if you’re lying.
“Did you miss me?”
Chapter Five
Ilook into my brother’s eyes, which never leave mine as he perches on a desk near the pillar where I’m chained. As usual, I can’t read what he expects of me. I’ve misread Seth’s moods countless times over the years, often to disastrous results.
But I am not the little girl chasing her brother and sister around the castle anymore, begging them to play with her only to regret it the moment they actually did. Seth may hold power over me right now, but he doesn’t know what I’m capable of.
And that gives me an advantage.
“No,” I tell him. And it’s the truth, just as he asked for. “I did not miss you. I hardly thought of you at all.”
Seth sighs and makes a clucking sound with his teeth as if to say it’s a real shame. “We never were close, were we? Why do you suppose that was?”
Because I was terrified of you. Because the few times I tried for your attention, you made me regret it. “I couldn’t say.”
“Oh, I think you could,” he says with some amusement. “I’ve heard you have much more to say these days.” He picks up a letter from the desk. The candlelight shines through it,rendering the ink visible through the paper. I recognize it even backwards as Adria’s hand. “‘We have a problem with the lark over-performing.’ That’s you. Please, for the love of all the gods, tell me she does not mean what I think she means.”
“I have no idea what she means.”
“That’s a lie,” he says cooly without putting down the letter. “As I said, I can tell. Do you want to know how I know?”
“I suspect you’re going to tell me either way.”
He smiles. “You tilt your head down a bit when you lie.” He demonstrates, looking at me from beneath his eyebrows. “You always have. Mother pointed it out to me when you were barely five years old. She thought that as bad as you were at lying, you’d be fire-born, and I’d be the shadow-born like her. I think she would have been right, if it wasn’t for Adria.”
“What did Adria do?”
Seth laughs as if my question is absurd. “Whatdidn’tshe do?” He pulls the chair from under the desk and sits in it facing backwards, his arms draped over it as if we’re about to engage in hot court gossip. “But enough about old times. Tell me what’s happened lately, anddo notlie to me again.”
“I did what was asked of me,” I say carefully. No lies there. “I got close enough to Ronan to earn his trust.”
“How close?”
“You already know.” I’m sure Adria shared her suspicions with him, and I don’t intend to share any details with my brother.
