Page 17 of Daughter of the Dark

The pin dug in deeper, keeping her impulses in check. A single drop of blood dripped from her fingertip and fell to the floor.

King Killian was not her enemy, not in the simplest of terms. But it was possible she was his. By blood, if not by actions.

Far in the back of her mind was a memory of her father, his hands clenched around her mother’s face, their words harsh and desperate. Do not trust him, he had whispered against her mother’s cheek, as if he could press them into her soul. Do not let her near him, as if Solana was the threat.

Perhaps she was, and the king knew that, knew her. Solana searched his face for her fate but found only cool calculation and unerring patience.

“I would like to extend an offer,” the king finally spoke into the silence.

Ususi, the darkness in her mind beckoned. She shook it away. “And what kind of offer would that be?”

King Killian shifted back and extended his hands out to the side, gesturing at the room, the castle, the kingdom. A trickle of sweat slid down Solana’s back.

“A position here, in my court, as the Royal Demon Hunter.”

CHAPTER SEVEN

Solana didn’t have a chance to respond. The room broke out into chaos, murmurs transformed into outrage, curiosity into incredulity. The crowd pressed in until the guards lining the walls stepped forward as one, the sound of their weapons a wordless rebuke. King Killian clasped his hands behind his back and walked back up the dais to his throne. Solana was left surrounded and vulnerable to the hate and indignation he had stoked.

Two guards appeared behind her. But they weren’t detaining her—they were facing the crowd, protecting her. As if she needed their help. Not because she thought herself capable of defeating them all, but because, for all their outcry, the crowd was full of cowards. They tossed their insults from a safe distance, never putting in the effort to create change or risk getting their hands dirty. It was why the himaya stone was so popular. The benefits of magic without any of the work.

On the dais, Reyes and King Killian were having a heated conversation. Solana watched the king cut his hand through the air, and then Reyes stepped back, his hands fists by his sides, and bowed his head curtly.

Interesting, indeed.

The king sat on his throne again, Reyes behind him, and all at once, the roar of dissent disappeared. “The people of Supay owe you a debt of gratitude.” Solana raised her eyebrows. King Killian surveyed the crowd as if they were ants scurrying across his pristine floors, his eyes touching them one by one only to dismiss them, and then came back to her. Reyes’s eyes did not stray to her at all. “You have stepped in to protect them without the means or training.”

“Your Majesty, while I am very…” Solana paused, searching for the right word, then settled on, “grateful for your consideration—”

Reyes scoffed. The king shot him a scathing look.

“I thought it past time that both were extended to you,” he said over her excuses. Solana snapped her mouth shut. “Our laws exist for a reason, but how could you abide by them without the proper environment?” His eyes bored into her, a threat without words. “I am sympathetic to your cause. Survival is a right. I intend to give you the proper tools for it and provide lawful protection for your people in your absence.”

A tense silence followed in which she got the impression that she was expected to drop to her knees and praise King Killian’s name. Not only was he pardoning her of any crimes she may have committed in killing muki, but he was also offering to train her and replace her in the callejon.

It had to be a trick. A joke. But the look on Reyes’s strikingly handsome face was too real to be a show. Storm-gray eyes narrowed, nostrils flared, jaw ticking as if he was biting his own tongue. It warmed her heart, knowing the thought of her was so deeply under his skin.

“And if I refuse?” she asked insouciantly.

It was clear her answer wasn’t expected. The crowd began to murmur again, more whispers along the lines of a girl with no sense, and she’s a murderer, what did he expect?

The guards were still at her back, still facing the crowd, but Solana kept her pin fisted tight. King Killian tapped his rings against the arm of the throne in a staccato beat that set her nerves on edge more than the unrest in the room. Reyes’s hand had moved to the hilt of his sword, his eyes darting over everything and everyone except for her.

For once in her life, Solana felt like a pillar in a storm. The winds of chaos stirred around her. The king’s offer had set droves of animosity into motion, and while Solana didn’t trust him—in fact, she might have loathed him as much as she did Reyes—she felt strangely neutral toward the whole situation.

Perhaps because she was alive when she truly thought she would not be.

“Enough,” the king roared. His voice bounced against the stone and cut the dissent off at its feet. “Leave us,” he added with a flick of his hand.

Nobody spoke as they shuffled out, guards included. By the time the last of the crowd left, it was only King Killian, Reyes, and Solana in the room. They all stayed where they were, and Solana wished, not for the first time, that she had her dagger in hand.

The door finally closed, and the king let out a breath, sitting back in his throne. Reyes ran a hand down his face and turned away. Solana, not knowing what else to do with herself, stood and waited for the men to be done with their dramatics.

“Now we can have an honest conversation,” the king said.

Solana was not so foolish as to believe that any of them were capable of such a thing.

“This is a terrible idea,” Reyes murmured. Solana hated to agree with him, but he was right.