Page 103 of The Crown’s Temptation

"I don't know." For the first time something cracked in him. "They said I would see him again once it was done. That is all I know. That is all they ever told me."

Colsar studied him for a long moment, a boy who had traded a woman's life, knowingly, for a promise he had no way of verifying, and felt nothing close to sympathy for either bargain.

"You poisoned my wife knowing it could kill her."

"I did." Edrin looked up at him, and there was no lie in it, which was somehow worse than if there had been. "I would do it again. Trust cost me my father. It will not cost me anything else."

Colsar left without answering him.

In the Dark

TEORIN

He knocked on her door.

No answer. As usual.

He entered anyway.

She was curled in the bed in a white nightgown, her hair spread across the pillow. He moved his chair closer and sat. His head was pounding. A day of eliminating creatures had taken its toll and he would need blood first thing in the morning. He had spent his whole life avoiding it and had learned quickly here in Morrath that the avoidance had been costing him more than he understood. He had been feeding regularly and the difference was undeniable. Stronger. Clearer. As though something that had been pressing against the inside of his skull for years had finally lifted.

He watched her breathe.

When she was sleeping it felt, unreasonably, like she was his. He knew that was not true. He knew she would be angry if she woke and found him here. Even the anger pleased him somehow. It meant she was still herself. Still fighting. Still refusing to let this place break her.

She stirred. He held his breath.

She stirred again. Her face turned toward him in the pillow. There was something strange about her tonight he could not quite place.

The room smelled strongly of her. Stronger than usual. He wondered if she had just taken a bath.

He closed his eyes, just briefly, and thought of what it must be like to watch such a sight.

A low hum began in his head. It started in his right ear, almost like the buzzing of a fly. By the time it moved to his left, it had become louder.

He did not mind. He just wanted to keep looking at her.

When she slowly opened her eyes he could not tell if it was her.

Or perhaps it was. He could no longer think straight. His hands trembled as she sat up, the strap of her nightgown falling down her shoulder.

"Teorin," she whispered.

Her smell consumed the room.

"Would you do anything for me?"

He did not answer. The part of him that had hardened over years of being not enough, illegitimate, bastard, not good enough for any of it, that part could not be this vulnerable. Not even now.

"Why are you asking me this?" His voice came out hoarse.

"Because you have always lied to me. But there is one truth I need to know."

"What is that?"

"Do you love me?"

She stood carefully, that golden hair falling to her waist. She trembled, slightly unsteady.