CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE #2
Destonne turned his head to study their shadows cast along the wall, flickering in the candlelight. To another it might appear she was reaching for an embrace, but all she saw was a deal, a bridge they would stand on the opposite sides of and agree to disagree.
Unsurprisingly, he stepped toward her, their bodies nearly flush. “Five.”
Emmery’s breath stuttered as she looked up at him. The flame danced in those dark eyes. She hadn’t expected that, and her hand dropped. “What do you mean five?”
“Five truths for your one. I think that’s more than fair. However, I offer three now and the other two at a time of my choosing.” He shoved his hand between them in a challenge. “Do we have a deal?”
Of course he would shift this. Change power from her hands to his. But it was a deal Emmery couldn’t pass up. So, she lifted her chin and looked up into his eyes with a challenge of her own.
“Five for one, how generous. I accept.” She grasped his hand, yanked him toward her, and closed that gap between them. His body heat blazed like a fiery sun, and wrapped her in its orbit. Gods, why was he so warm?
Destonne’s eyes widened as she caught him off guard. Her gaze simmered and she stood on her toes, close enough for her breath to brush his neck. Her breasts pressed against his chest and if he had a heartbeat, it would have thundered against her with each of his disjointed breaths.
“But if this is a trick, you’ll regret it. Do you hear me, Destonne?”
A shudder went through his body but he nodded.
She turned her head so her lips brushed the short scrape of stubble along his jaw, and said, “You have no idea what I’m capable of.”
“I’m not sure you do either. But I would love to find out together.” The tremor in his voice was a delicious victory to her ears. Destonne dropped her hand and stepped back like he couldn’t get away from her fast enough. “Are you ready for the first truth?”
Emmery gestured to a spot on the bed as she took her seat beside Fionn.
Destonne cleared his throat and perched himself on the bed, his back propped against the footboard.
He stared at his hands as he spoke like the truths lived in the lines of his palms. “Those executions you claim ‘maintain fear’ all stem from riots. I can’t let unrest go unpunished.
These people were given a choice, and they chose to spew lies.
” His cheek twinged as he shifted his shoulder away from the post. “We’re on the same side, and I protect those aligned with me.
I won’t allow your name to be slandered as mine has. That’s my first truth.”
Emmery sat like a statue, her shoulders taut with shock.
Because if these were lies disguised as truths, he was too convincing.
He ran his thumb over the rose pactum and studied it like it whispered the reason for everything.
And his actions now fertilized immeasurable guilt inside her. Those people were dead because of her.
“I never asked you to do that,” she started, exasperated. “I never asked you to execute those people in my name—”
“It was never your choice. It was mine.”
She opened her mouth to rebut, but he continued, “My second truth: we’re overextended in our trade agreements since the mountain pass was opened.
My father had made all sorts of promises he never intended to keep, and I now have to fulfil them.
There isn’t enough food. I’m not blind. I see it.
Those with the blessing of earth and water are overworked and depleted each day as it is.
But if I were to dishonour these contracts, there would surely be war and our army is small.
I don’t have magic to protect my people and my hands are tied with the Council in many ways. ”
Another surge of guilt swelled and became a beast inside her. If her opening the mountain passage was the reason for these people’s suffering—
Well, shit. Yet another thing to add to her list of regrets.
She noted the flush to Destonne’s cheeks, the tiny pinpricks of sweat on his forehead.
His shoulder must have troubled him more than she thought, and yet he was here with her.
Not resting, as he should. And why he was here in the first place, she didn’t know.
Either he had looked for her and suspected she’d be with Fionn, or he’d come to see Fionn himself. Both meant entirely different things.
He continued, “My third truth is none of those children are dead. They’ve simply disappeared, you could say.”
Emmery’s stomach cinched with uncertainty. “What do you mean?”
“There’s a small island off the coast. It’s about an hour boat ride away. It’s blessedly surrounded in mist, forgotten in many ways because of the treacherous waters. A wonderful spot to, let’s say, hide people who aren’t meant to be found. Don’t you think?”
His words burrowed into her heart. Those children—their mothers wept over their empty graves, agony in their cries. “Do their parents know?”
“Unfortunately, I don’t have the liberty to share and hope people keep quiet. So, no. But they will soon. I’m waiting until I have the power to do so.”
“When you have your magic back?” she asked.
He gave a terse nod. “I’m biding my time. Brennen is the only one who knows of these plans besides you. So if you breathe a word of it to anyone, I’ll know it was you, and you don’t want to cross me, either.” His eyes glittered with promise.
Emmery’s swallow caught in her throat. Everything she’d believed was a tapestry unravelling at her fingertips.
And though she caught each strand, the picture was now distorted and a damn mess of loose threads she had no idea how to mend.
It was reminiscent of when she’d discovered Vesper’s lies those weeks ago.
“I’ll offer a bonus truth if you wish,” Destonne offered.
Emmery scrutinized him. “Why?”
“Why not?” He tilted his head. “Seems I’ve already revealed far too much. Why stop now?”
“Alright, fine,” she said, skeptical but willing to accept his offer. “Let's make it six for one then.” She peeked at Fionn beside her. His breathing had sped ever so slightly. Emmery’s brows creased, but she tore her attention back to Destonne. “I have a newfound hunger for your secrets.”
“So you do,” he mused, the corner of his mouth twitching.
“What’s your fourth?” she whispered, her voice giving out.
A smirk tugged at his lips. “You’re not going to accuse me of lying?”
Emmery lifted a brow. “Are you?”
“I wouldn’t dream of it.” Destonne laid back on the bed and pinched the bridge of his nose like his head ached.
“The last is to answer your question about the state of the castle.” He pulled a deep breath through his nose as if his chest inflated with his secret.
“I didn’t grow up here. My childhood was spent in the north at the school lodging.
When I returned to Asaella on small allowances of time, it was to see my mum and Arran.
But neither the north nor this place were ever truly … home.”
She felt his words as if they were her own. She, too, had never been truly settled. How long had she been on the run? Castle Dusk was the first place to hold that promise since her cottage, but her stay had been short lived.
He continued, “I never wished to put care into this place. Frankly, I wanted to tear it down and rebuild it as my own, but there are memories living here I can’t seem to part with and they outweigh the terrible ones.
Besides, we don’t have the funds to change this place.
Our coffers are empty, though I’m sure you assumed as much by now. ”
Destonne lifted his curls off his forehead and dabbed at the sweat.
“I considered staying at Castle Dusk for some time to escape after my father was gone. But each time I stepped inside I couldn’t help but feel ill, like I was intruding on another’s life.
It belonged to the Merikhs and I had no business being there.
There was also something else about it that didn’t sit right with me.
So I squirrelled Ellynne’s capital away and barricaded it from the world. I had no desire for that land anyway.”
Emmery frowned as his truth sat heavy in her gut. “Then why not let Vesper have it? Give him his home back and let him do as he pleased?”
Destonne stilled like something just dawned on him. “Ah, I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised he never told you.”
Her stomach sank and she barely got the words out. All the truths and realizations had struck her, and she was unsure how much more of a beating she could take before she collapsed in on herself. “Never told me what?”
“I tried, many times, to give Vesper his kingdom back. My only term was that he worked alongside me as amicable neighbouring territories. It seemed fair. I couldn’t have him scheming for my downfall if I offered him power.
” Destonne sat back up, his expression grim, falling back into memories.
“He tried to kill me. Several times over, in shockingly creative ways. And with his treason, I was forced to give him a choice—work at my side so I could keep a close eye on him, or die for his crimes. He chose the former and that was that. Up until I tasked him with retrieving you from across the gate.”
Shock stole all of Emmery’s thoughts, her mind a tangle of words and emotions in one great whirlwind, or rather shitstorm. If these were all lies, too, they were infallibly well crafted; steel and stone, through and through. Though Emmery was silent, Destonne pressed forward.
“I believe you owe me one truth, angel.” He stared at her hands fisted in her lap, knuckles bleached. “Why did you choose me?”
Emmery sank her teeth into her bottom lip, in disbelief she was voicing this.
“Because you were right. What you said when we had dinner. I’ve been fighting it, telling myself it isn’t true, but maybe we are more alike than I care to admit.
” She swallowed past the lump in her throat. “And I had nowhere else to go.”