Did you think you would achieve peace without also shedding the blood of your House?
I bristle at the implicit contempt in his question. “No.” I don’t have the power to pull off a bloodless peace.
No. You don’t.
No one is going, or has the power, to offer me aid. Only one person can. He never will. I have nothing he wants and he has every reason to destroy me. On sight. Then make an example of my House though he was, by my mother’s account, her brother for thousands of years before he slept.
I frown, staring out the carriage window. Maybe before I killed Embriel I could have tugged on that thread, but not now.
“I’m willing to shoulder the price,” I say softly.
What price, Aerinne?
This is a pointless conversation. A daydream. But I shrug again though I mean every flippant word.Any price.None is too high.
He doesn’t speak until the carriage rolls to a stop.Very well then, Lady of Faronne. Remember your choice, when it’s time. You will most certainly be held to it.
I turn and stare at her.
She smiles, and shoves her tinted glasses up her nose. “First,
let’s work on managing these intense emotional states when
they arise so you have tools before you reach the point where
you need emergency medication or external intervention.”
She purses her lips.
“Second, let’s develop some strategies for tolerating this
incredibly stressful situation you’re in right now. Also,
considering recent events, perhaps we’ll increase our evening
sessions at Faronne House to two a week. Until things are
no longer quite as difficult.”
Chapter
Five
AMBUSH
O, I am fortune's fool!
—Romeo and Juliet, Act 3, Scene 1
Don't distract me at a bad time or make me do anything stupid,I warn Darkan as we leave the carriage.
Myself—whatever. I don't see how he can be a fractured part of my psyche, but every time I try to think about it?—
You dare?
Thatgot his attention. I sigh inwardly and brace myself. He never disappoints.
Faronne is hotheaded, lacks refined manners, is swayed by bloodthirst to the point of savagery?—
