“I’ve spent over five hundred years battling this fucking monster inside me, Vi. I am stronger than it is. I am stronger than the souls that rage within me, desperate for release. And I am stronger than your mother’s curse.”
“What happens if it hits your heart?”
His jaw hardens. “I’m not concerned with—”
Stubborn, cursed fool. I stab a finger into his chest. “Well, you should be. You’re the Prince of Evernight, and your kingdom is at war. Your people can’t stand against my mother’s army by themselves. If you die, then she will come for them and she will crush them all, because you’re the only thing currently holding her at bay. And while my mother might be stronger than you are—”
“I didn’t say she was stronger. I said I threw everything at her that I could afford to throw.”
It momentarily stalls me.
Thiago offers me a savage smile, showing me his forearm again. “I could break through my wards, Vi. I could unleash myself and in so doing, I could crush your mother like an ant beneath my heel, but if I do that then I won’t care who gets in my way. Eris. Finn. Thalia....” His voice roughens. “You. I will kill you all to get at her. I won’t even be myself anymore. I’ll be something else. Someone else. And you won’t like him very much.”
I’ve seen it in him sometimes.
Leashed violence. His eyes darkening until there’s no color left in them.
I slip my hands inside his. “I’ve seen hints of him, Thiago. I’m not afraid of your Darkness. And the truth is… whatever lies inside you is still you. And you love me. You would never hurt me. Not even your darker side.”
The breath explodes out of him. “Curse it, Vi. You should be scared. You have no fear when it comes to me. I should never have touched you that first time. I should never have—”
I cut him off with a kiss, painting it across his lips.
“You were my salvation,” I whisper against his mouth, because I know what my life was like before I met him. “If you hadn’t kissed me that first time, then I would be nothing now. I would be trapped within my mother’s court, slowly screaming on the inside, dying a little more each day. You set me free. You welcomed me into your arms—into your heart—and I don’t regret a single moment of it.”
There’s no more doubt within his eyes.
Thiago’s hand slides around the back of my neck, hauling me toward him. His mouth slams down upon mine, rough and demanding, full of proprietary claim. This kiss is raw fire, burning all my hesitation and doubts away. I could let him claim me. I could let this be the end of it, but….
There’s just one thing….
One tiny little thing….
“Wait. Wait.” I tear my mouth from his and rest my forehead against his chest, breathing hard.
Gentle fingertips trace my cheeks. “What for?”
He’s told me everything.
I can’t hide the truth from him any longer. Not if there’s to be any hope for us.
“Since we’re sharing, there’s something I need to tell you.”
Instant frustration. “Vi, is this really the time?” Roughened hands slide down the curve of my waist. “Because it’s been days since I’ve been inside you.”
“Yes. Yes, it is. Because if I don’t tell you now, then I don’t know if I’ll be able to find the courage again.”
Thiago draws back, staring down at me.
“Do you remember the night of the Queensmoot when I drove my mother back?” The words blurt out of me.
A new sort of wariness enters Thiago’s eyes as if he senses a trap about to spring closed. “Yes.”
I press my cheek into his palm, clasping it there. Desperate for it to stay there. “You thought it was part of the bargain I made with the Mother of Night. That she would loan me her power in order to defeat the curse and throw my mother back.”
“What are you trying to—”
“She broke the curse and that was all.” I press my finger to his lips. Those damning lips that promise to steal my soul. “What if I was to tell you that I was the one who threw Mother back? That the power I wielded was… mine.”
Silence.
He’s not even breathing, and I need him to say something. Anything.
“You’re not strong enough.” Quiet words full of denial, as if he senses a glimpse of the truth.
“Not my fae magic, no.”
Shadows sweep across his face, but I stall him again, holding up my left wrist—the one that wears the golden cuff that prevents magic from being able to find me.
“You couldn’t work out why the fetch tried to kidnap me,” I say quickly, “but you knew Angharad was searching for the leanabh an dàn—the child of destiny—in order to sacrifice her to the Horned One.”
“Her?” He catches that tiny slip, because nobody ever said it was a female.
I tip my chin up. “Me.”
He starts shaking his head, and each step back makes my heart curdle a little. “No. No, you’re not—”
“The Morai said it first.” I wrap my arms around myself as he retreats. “They said I would break the world apart and bring about the end of Unseelie. That’s why they attacked me. And the Mother of Night.... That’s why she made a bargain with me. She wants me to set her free. She said my mother slept with one of the Old Ones on Samhain when he was freed for the night, and he spilled his power within her womb. I can feel the Hallows. I can feel the power of the ley lines. I can wield it. I used that power to push my mother back at the Queensmoot.”
And a torrent of magic so bright and burning burst from me, driving her to her knees.
“I am the leanabh an dàn.”
Thiago’s jaw drops.
The truth crashes over him like a tidal wave, and every flicker of it paints
