“Who says I want to get out of here?”
“We’re standing inside what I’m thinking is Mauldrene’s guts.”
“It is. They are.”
Even with his pair of lumoons joining the two hovering beside her, the lumoonlight traveled only far enough to illuminate both of them. Beyond their light, the cavern, vast enough for their voices to echo, faded into sinister shadows.
“You believe these are her insides, and you don’t want to get out of here?” Maybe his temptress really was crazy.
“Why would I? You’ll just lock me back up in the dungeon till I rot.” She harrumphed. “Or you’ll fuck me to death, maybe, with that monster dick of yours.”
“Monster big dick.”
“Whatever you gotta tell yourself.”
“I’m not putting you back in the dungeon. I took you out of there, didn’t I?”
“Oh yeah, that’s right. My fucking savior. Should I bow down and kiss your ass now?”
“If you’d like.”
“I wouldn’t like. You’re my brother’s mur?—”
He whipped his head up so fast that his neck popped, echoing in the pulsing, breathing warren of creepy castle guts. Looking upward, all he could make out was glistening dark walls leading into a blackness so rich it was like velvet. Picturing his words stretching to punch through that velvet, he bellowed, “I did not kill your brother!”
His denial reverberated, setting the floor beneath them to quivering, the vibration spreading up his legs. His eyes had to be burning as ferociously as hers.
“I’m responsible for so many deaths that I’ll never be able to scour their stain from my essence. To my eternal shame, I’ve lost count of how many lives I’ve taken. But I never let go of a face. I’m haunted by the faces of every single man and woman I’ve ever killed.”
She opened her mouth.
“No, I did not kill children. Not once, not ever. And I didn’t kill your brother. If I had, I’d own up to it, I really would.”
“I’m just supposed to believe you?”
He threw up his hands. “Believe me or don’t, I really don’t fucking care anymore. But think about it for a second. Why wouldn’t I admit to killing your brother if I had? My father would be proud of me for once. He’d laud me for taking out the Rubor crown prince. I’d be his fucking hero, at least for a day or two. So why wouldn’t I fess up?”
“Because you’re a liar who’s trying to manipulate me.”
He sighed so deeply he felt his frustration rattle his bones. “I … there’s nothing I can say to convince you”—and why the fuck was he trying to convince his enemy of his goodness—in this one instance—anyway? “I just … I didn’t do it.”
He held her eyes as their glow intensified, until her eyeballs vibrated.
“You really didn’t kill him?”
“No, my dove, I didn’t. I promise you.”
He anticipated some shit about how his promises meant nothing. She breathed in and out, in and out, then in and out again.
“By the Ethers and Fuerin, you really didn’t kill him, did you?” Her words were a mere whisper.
“No, I really didn’t.”
“Well, fuck.”
That wasn’t what he’d expected. But then, when had the woman ever done a single predictable thing?
Chapter 13
