Page 51 of The Crown’s Temptation

"What?"

"Avaneer. I paid Avaneer for the ship. All of it was Avaneer."

"Avaneer? The one you said was responsible for the Thren attack?"

"Yes."

I searched my mind, but my head began to pound immediately. I could not remember anything that had happened the night I died.

I could remember The North Tower. King Orsin. All of it. And I desperately wanted to know if any part of it was real. Yet, some part of me knew that it was.

"Is Avaneer the one who killed me?"

"I don't know." His eyes narrow. "I don't know the answer to any of that."

He takes my hand again. I wish I had the strength to pull it back. The room feels blurry. "I need you to know that I would never harm you. Ever."

My eyes want to close. "You say that. But we both know you're a liar, Teorin."

He laughs softly. Reaches over and brushes a strand of hair from my face. "You are late," he murmurs.

His head moves closer to mine. Something in me is going numb. A familiar numbness I do not trust and cannot name.

"I am fond of you, Asharin."

"Teorin. No."

I try to move my head away. I reach for my lightcraft before remembering it does not work here. His lips are almost touching mine. I bite down on his lower lip with everything I have and manage "Fuck off" though my voice is slow. Slurred. The bite does not deter him. If anything there is more want in his eyes than before and a low sound rises from his throat.

He reaches for me again.

A knock at the door.

Dali enters. An amused look on her face. She takes in the scene and something darkens briefly in her expression before she recovers.

"Majesty," she says to Teorin. "There are rooms and rooms of humans downstairs for your eating pleasure. Please indulge yourself."

"I'm not hungry."

She smiles. "Oh but you are. Please do not tell me you believe that nonsense they tell you that feeders do not need blood to survive.”

She laughs. “To survive physically, perhaps. But mentally you will eventually deteriorate.” She looks at Teorin up and down. “Which is clearly the case with you.”

Teorin frowns. "I don't know or care what you're talking about."

"Perhaps you should. If you want to keep her safe." She nods toward me. "And if you want any chance of her ever allowing you in the same room as her again. Because what you almost just did, she would have killed you for it. Many women would have."

"What do you mean? What did I almost just do?" The look on his face is one of confusion which I find almost as unsettling as what he just attempted to do.

Dali laughs softly. "Teorin Rathmor. When is the last time you drank blood?"

He thinks for a minute. "That is none of your concern."

She tilts her head and laughed. “I bet you have only done it for pleasure. I bet you have never done a true feeding in your life.”

Teorin says nothing.

I lay there, still confused by what had just happened or almost happened and by the new information.