Page 14 of To Sway a Demon Heart

“I thought I could burn all of my enemies to ash?” I retorted, giving him an irritated scowl. “Why would you tell all of that to your nobility? It’s impossible to appear harmless if you tell everyone I’m not.”

Tyr laughed. “You are not harmless. And you’re annoyed at my praise?” He raised a brow at me and crossed his arms.

I pursed my lips. Now wasn’t the time to get into this. “Why are you here, Lord Tyr?” I asked, trying to quell the fire he fanned in me, both from irritation and desire. The Pull was eager for me to act on that fire, and I was working very hard to stamp it out.

Tyr sighed, looking up at the ceiling in what appeared to be a prayer for patience. Or maybe strength. He looked back at me, his red hair framing his face, still pale after the events of the evening. “Someone in this castle killed that demon and was able to lie about it.”

“Yes,” I agreed, frowning at the Lord of Blood. “What of it?”

“If we don’t know who it was, then they could be targeting anyone,” Tyr continued, clearly trying to get me to arrive at his reason without him saying it. He looked at me pointedly.

“And?” I asked, still not understanding why he was in my room.

“Gods help me,” Tyr murmured, scrubbing a hand over his face. “It’s not safe here, for either of us. I think we should stay together until this tournament is over and a new Lord of Shadow has been named.”

“Together,” I repeated, frowning. Realization struck, and the Pull inside me leapt for joy at the opportunity before me. I batted it back down. “You want to stay here.”

“Or you can stay with me,” Tyr agreed, throat working as if he were pushing down his own rogue mating pull. Maybe he was. “I know it’s complicated, but—”

“You can stay,” I said, trying not to sound too eager or breathless. Nothing was going to happen. I knew that. But the Pull was a needy creature, and it had its own plans. “On the sofa.”

“Of course,” Tyr agreed, sounding both relieved and worried about this plan. “This changes nothing between us, Brigid.”

“I know,” I said calmly, trying not to show the flinch of pain as his words struck my heart. “You’ve made yourself very clear.”

“This is purely for safety,” he added.

I gave him a sardonic look. “Who are you trying to convince, Lord Tyr?”

“Me, clearly,” he murmured, nearly unintelligibly as he scrubbed his face again. “Perhaps this was a bad idea.”

“We are adults, Tyr,” I said, rising from the vanity where I had been sitting and going to the bed. I undid the sash on my robe and climbed beneath the covers, not daring to look at Tyr’s reaction to the white silken nightgown I had chosen. “You can stay on that side of the room, and both of us can behave ourselves.”

Tyr nodded tightly, removing his jacket and folding it neatly across the back of the settee. He undid his waistcoat next, and I tried to ignore the flutter in my chest as it joined his coat.

“I’ll sleep like this,” he said, a little awkwardly, indicating the clothes that still covered him completely. The Pull growled in annoyance, but I nodded, throwing him a pillow, which he caught neatly with a reflexive grin. “Much obliged.”

I blew out the candles and turned over without another word, listening in the darkness as Tyr settled onto the couch.

“What was it like?” I asked quietly, listening to the wind howling outside the stained glass windows as the whole castle seemed to moan with the movement. “Growing up here?”

“Lonely,” Tyr replied. “Like you said. This place is more mausoleum than home.”

“Was it just you and your father?” I asked, wondering if he would answer. Tyr rarely volunteered information about his past, so I knew I was pressing my luck.

He sighed, a sound of resigned despair. “I had a mother,” he said. “For a time.”

When he didn’t elaborate, I knew what must have happened to her. Perhaps she too was a victim of Tyr’s power-hungry father. Maybe her death was one of the many reasons Tyr eventually turned on his father.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered, not sure what else I could say to offer comfort. I had known the unconditional love of two parents. I couldn’t fathom losing one, let alone being the one to end their life.

“Me too,” Tyr said quietly. Neither of us spoke again, the howling wind forming an eerie lullaby. Something about his nearness soothed me, and despite my worry and fear and discomfort with this tournament, I fell into an easy sleep.

Chapter 9

Thesecondtrial,theTrial of Shadow, would blessedly require neither of us to expend our magic. Instead, the remaining contestants would be tasked with meeting each other in battle and encouraged to use their shadow magic to defeat their foes. There would be no external magical interference, and the last contestants standing after one hour would proceed to the final trial.

It was going to be a bloodbath.