My avatar flickered again, trying to sneak past me to latch onto Renaud. He gave no indication he cared. Maybe his dragon thought my kitten was cute.
. . .Or would make a decent snack with a few more years of maturation.
My heel sank into a crack in one of the uneven white stones. Renaud tightened his grip. My lack of court training was evident as I made a face, took a handful of fabric in my hand, and lifted it high enough not to trip and go tumbling down the stairs in the break-your-neck shoes.
“Let's do casual next time,” I said, then wanted to shoot myself for implying there would be a next time.
Renaud lifted my hand to his lips. “You enslave my breath in whatever garb you choose. Moonlight manifested in the form of a female.”
My chest tightened. I forced my voice to remain indifferent. “I'm too earthy for moonlight.”
He wasn't though, onyx hair shimmering with blue, his skin pale, aged ivory, a half shade darker than yesterday. My eyes mimicked the forest during fall, a thick ring of brown at the rims shading into mossy green and finally a warm amber around the pupil. His shimmered, ethereal hues of gray, silver, and blue.
Sun and moon, fall and winter.
A couple formed of opposites. My parents had been striking side by side. My father with his midnight complexion and eyes, my mother with her milkmaid skin and flaxen hair. Not that I hadevercalled her a milkmaid to her face.
Certainly not when she had a weapon at hand.
“You're smiling,” Renaud said, glancing down at me.
It froze on my lips. “I was thinking about my mother. My mother and my father.”
“Yes, Maryonne. I remember.”
I wanted to demand he tell me everything he remembered, but that would reveal too much of my own pain. Though maybe he would understand.
“You should. You killed her.”
I stumbled as rage scorched the air. Renaud stopped, muscles rigid under my arm, and faced me.
ChapterTwenty
“Perhaps we shouldn't speak of our dead, lest we pile the corpses of those we value at each other’s feet.”
Confronted with his glacial voice, the brush of warning, I realized how deep that indulgence of his ran, and how I'd been inadvertently taking it for granted.
Any fantasy I'd entertained that he didn't know about Embry shriveled and died a. . .what did he call it? Ah.
A messy death.
Mine was probably imminent.Maybe heenjoyed toying with his prey first.
Pulling my hand from his elbow, I faced him. “My mother came to wake you. She wanted peace, and you killed her.”
Renaud watched me with cold, assessing alien eyes. The air hummed, as if each molecule waited for his command to fling me onto the ground, bleeding from every pore. Then the tension eased.
“She understood the risks. She was no youth and spent decades in the old Court.” He lifted a hand, palm outstretched as if in plea. I knew better—this male pled to no one, for nothing. “I regret her death. If I had not been sleeping, I would not have lifted my hand against her.”
I lowered my head, mostly so he wouldn't see my unshed tears. I exhaled, forced the emotions back. I would not shame my House.
Fae could not lie.
He hadn’tmeantto kill her.
Was it enough? Could I let her go? No. But could I let vengeance go? I'd extracted my eye for an eye, after all. Perhaps I could neither quite forgive, nor forget, but I could. . .abide. There might, after all, be a better use of what time I had left.
Fingers clamped under my chin, forcing me to meet Renaud's gaze. “Tell me, Lady Aerinne, in this moment with only the stars as witness, what regrets do you confess?”
