Page 86 of Daughter of the Dark

“It does matter, because I need you to understand that I didn’t betray you. That I meant it when I said I would never hurt you again.”

Solana scoffed. “You can’t make that promise. We can’t control everything that happens.”

“Exactly,” he said and slowly lifted his hand to tuck an errant curl behind her ear.

Despite herself, Solana leaned into his touch until his hand was cupping her cheek. It would have been in her best interest to step away, to separate herself from anything that could be taken from her, but she was tired of depriving herself of good things. “I didn’t betray you either,” she finally admitted.

“I know,” Reyes said.

Solana dropped her forehead against Reyes’s and laughed. Tears burned her eyes, but she didn’t let them fall. Not yet. “He’s been building this army for twenty years,” she whispered.

“And then he took you off the streets and removed his greatest threat.”

Solana shook her head, mind racing. “He kept me because he thought I would be easy to control, to use.”

“That’s because he doesn’t know you like I do,” Reyes said, the words light with teasing. “We’ll stop him together, Sol. Any of us can kill him, but you are the only one who can break the curse. We need you.” He paused and shifted ever closer. “I need you. Let me show you how much.”

It was her greatest fear, and yet she held the words close and allowed them to give her the strength she needed to stay, to follow Reyes until the end, whatever that may be.

Solana was in the middle of the ocean, the color a deep, iridescent blue like a mixture of Killian’s gift and Reyes’s eyes. The water was still, and she was standing on a rock. Above her, the sky was black, the stars sharp pinpricks of light in the abyss.

She wasn’t alone.

Bodies floated in the water, mortals and muki, red and black blood swirling closer and closer, merging into hands that reached for her, grasping and gasping, tearing at her flesh with their claws and their fear as they tugged her under into that watery grave, until all she could see was darkness and death.

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

Sleep evaded her once again. Solana sat on the edge of her bed, breath held and straining to listen to the sounds of the night seeping through the small window high above.

The room was tiny, big enough only for the bed and a chest of drawers directly beside it. There was the small window that let in a stream of soft light, and then there was the door. Only one way in and out.

Next to her, Reyes’s breathing was steady and comforting. She used it to calm her racing heart and clear her muddled thoughts.

There was a thump from somewhere beyond the door. Fingers tingling, Solana was up and brandishing her father’s dagger before her. On the other side of the bed, Reyes had rolled to his feet and stood shirtless in the shadows, the lines of his body rippling with tension.

The door handle clicked, so quiet she could barely hear it over her own pulse. A lithe figure slid through the small crack. Solana released her breath and dropped her hand.

Cora’s sharp eyes shone in the dark and softened with relief when they met hers and then Reyes’s. She pressed her fingers to her lips. They all stood deadly still, listening and waiting.

Another thump, this one clearly from somewhere below. Solana didn’t have her dagger to warn her, but she knew. “They’re here,” she mouthed.

Cora nodded calmly. Even though Solana’s mind was racing, she could feel the weight of Reyes’s attention begging her not to do anything reckless. She could rift, but nobody else could, and taking them one at a time would take too long and leave too much of a trail. If they were here only for her, then she could leave and hope that they’d follow. But if they weren’t, she’d be leaving them in danger.

The handle clicked again.

This time, two familiar bodies slid through a wider crack. The door snicked closed behind them with barely a sound, and then Oskar and Suri were staring at her, waiting. They all were.

Solana glared at them in turn. “You’re looking at me as if I have the answers,” she whispered harshly.

“You aren’t the type of person to be without reckless plans,” Reyes said, a sly smile at the corner of his lips. It was a challenge that set Solana’s blood thrumming with thrill. She thought of the way he had clasped onto her in the castle and how he had rifted along with her. If she could do that again, but with more than one person, they could escape the room with their enemies being none the wiser.

“I can rift us out a few people at a time.”

“You had a hard time rifting with only me,” he said, giving her a pointed look before he tugged his shirt over his head. “We’ll keep it to one person at a time.”

But Solana shook her head. “That’ll take too long.”

Downstairs, something shattered. They all tensed. “I’ll stay with Reyes,” Cora said quickly.