Page 75 of Prince of the Sun

Under my punching fists, Daerios goes completely still.

I take advantage of his stillness, using both hands to shove him away. He stumbles backward, knocking into the wall.

“I figured it out.” I heave air in and out, fists clenched at my side. “I figured it all out. Why the elves are on Earth. What they’re looking for. Because it isn’t awhatat all, is it? It’s a who. Someone with golden eyes. Someone containing a powerful light, whose sacrifice can save your realm.”

Daerios’s jaw opens and closes, as if he wants to deny it. But he can’t. I know he can’t.

“That’s why you only took an interest in me after I marched up to you in the library. It was the first time you saw my eyes.”

“I—”

“Well?” I demand, advancing on him. “Am I wrong?”

“No. You’re not wrong, but—”

“I knew it. I fucking knew it.” I step back, shaking my head. “God. I’m so fucking stupid. This whole time, I let myself believe you actuallylikedme. Even after I heard the conversation between you and Saechon. Even after you said you had a new lead—”

“Wait.” Daerios holds up a hand. “How can you know that?” His eyes narrow, seeming to take in the packed muscle of myarms and legs. A body able to scale walls and squeeze into tight places. “Have you beenspyingon me?”

“OfcourseI’ve been spying on you, you self-righteousidiot.” At this point, I’m practically screaming. No doubt Berendir can hear me next door. No doubt the entire campus can. I don’t care. Red streaks my vision, clouding out any wiser impulse toward strategy and secrecy. “Your kind murdered my father and took my brother. They destroyed the only family I’ll ever have.”

Daerios’s eyes widen. “What are you—”

“Oh, spare me the innocence charade, Daerios. Fucking spare me. Michael had golden eyes, just like me. That’s why they took him. And you expect me to believe that a member of the royal family hadno ideaabout such a promising lead?”

“I didn’t—”

“And me, like the idiot that I am, I believed you. I convinced myself that it was Shadow Elves that took my brother—”

“Wait, wait,what? Shadow Elves?”

“—and that we could work together to save him. That you could help me save my brother, and I could help you save Elaërion. I truly believed that. I trulywantedto.That’s how stupid I am.” I shake my head. “Little did I know, I was part of your plan to save Elaërion all along.”

Anger drove me here, propelled my feet and my fists and my mouth. I didn’t come with a plan outside of finding out the truth. But I probably should have, considering that Daerios is a 163-year-old elven prince, and I’m a puny human who, apparently, is at risk of becoming sliced deli meat for the sake of saving another planet.

And I walked right into his room and announced that I know everything.

It’s only then that I think to feel afraid.

But it’s too late, now. Too late to turn around. This is what I get for trusting an elf. For ignoring both my mother and mybetter judgment.

I think I love him.

“And the worst part was that I, I ate it up.” My voice wobbles. “All of it. The entire act.” I swallow thickly. Wipe away the tears streaming down my cheeks. “I fell for you, Daerios.”

His eyes snap back to mine, widening with surprise and something else. Something soft and breakable, like fear—or hope.

I step backward. “But it was all a lie.”

A dozen other emotions pass across his face—confusion, hurt, anger, searching. His hands lift, as if he wants to reach for me, then drop limply back to his sides. “Quinn,” he says. “Please. Just let me exp—”

But at that moment, the door to his room opens again. I turn, insults at the ready, thinking it will be Berendir telling us to take our marital spat elsewhere.

Instead, I find Saechon.

“Daerios,” the eldest Elf Prince says, “I need to—”

But when his gaze settles upon me, he freezes. I do too, inhaling a sudden gust of terror that fills every corner of my body. My eyes flit between the two elvish guards flanking Saechon, blocking the exit.