Those words haunt me all through the next phase.
‘If I knew a way to help you…’
A part of me feels like I’m on a trail. It’s a trail lined with breadcrumbs leading through the dark lands.
I think of the night he set an actual trail for me, ten years ago, but fresher in my memory than yesterday, and he did use breadcrumbs then.
‘A way that meant you didn’t have to enter the first passage at all…’
He could just be baiting me. But then, I do know Daxeel.
This isn’t a sort of love where I’m romanticizing the idea of him, a fantasy male. I know him, I see him, all of him, and I love him wholly.
So I know him well enough to pick up on the clues he’s peppered throughout his words to me.
Daxeel does know a way out of this for me.
That’s why he followed me to the tower. That’s why he stayed up there with me. But why would he tell me the answer?
That’s the question he wants me to mull over.
And I do.
There is only one answer I settle on for longer than a moment. The one I am certain of.
Daxeel wants something in exchange for his helping me. He wants a trade.
I don’t need to think twice about what he might want from me. His mouth on my core is answer enough. But his anger with me tells me it isn’t sex he wants.
Daxeel wants me on my knees for him.
This doesn’t ease the panic that brews in my chest.
The Sacrament is just around the corner, and if I’m wrong about what Daxeel wants from me, then it could just be the deadliest mistake I’ve ever made. Especially with his threat. No, his promise. A fae promise.
I need to be certain of a few things before I do anything silly.
Before I offer a bargain to him, I need to find the whore and learn what I can from her; but also, I need to tell Aleana the truth about what’s been going on between her brother and I. Her loose lips can save my life.
If I’m wrong…
I shudder to think of my fate.
But it’s this risk with him… or certain death in the Sacrament.
I told you before. I didn’t lie.
I’m a fool.
Cursed Shadows will return…
