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“Refuse and I’ll leave a gift for your lover.”
I rose onto my knees, my hands shaking.
“Say it,” she ordered. “Say, ‘I pray to thee, Goddess Dis, defender of my blood. Forgive my sins and guard against temptation, for you are my light in the darkness.’”
She had chosen her words to wound and likely hoped to provoke my violence, but I remained still, my nails digging into my palms, and I repeated her prayer, each word forced out between my teeth.
When I finished, she laughed again.
“Remember those words, Adrian. You will need them again soon.”
She was gone and so was her pain, as if she had reached into my mind and pulled it free. When my vision cleared, I found that I was still on the floor and Daroc hovered over me.
“Are you all right?” he asked.
“Far from it,” I said as I got to my feet.
I hated that he had seen me so helpless. I felt his eyes on me in the silence.
“Is it Dis?” he asked.
I did not respond. I did not like to say her name, much less hear it.
“You can tell me,” Daroc continued.
“I do not want to talk about it,” I said. Finally, I looked at him. “Did you need something?”
He opened his mouth to speak but hesitated, and I realized he’d come to talk about Sorin.
“I did not know,” he began. “I swear to you. I—”
“I never thought you did,” I said.
“I would like your permission to hunt for him,” Daroc said.
I was quiet, studying him, uncertain this was the choice he should make so soon after his lover’s betrayal.
“And what will you do when you find him?” I asked.
Daroc swallowed. His eyes were so red, they looked as if they were filled with blood.
“I will kill him.”
“For me?” I asked. “Or for you?”
He opened his mouth to speak, but instead, he seemed to hold his breath.
“Would you really wish to exist in this world after you murdered your lover?” I asked.
I knew vengeance would come for Sorin, but I did not think it right for Daroc to take up the gauntlet, and I would never ask it of him.
“Formerlover,” he said, a bitter note to his voice.
“All the same,” I said. “You love him.”
His mouth trembled.
“I wish I didn’t,” he said through clenched teeth.
