The Ragpicker King (The Chronicles of Castellane, #2)

by Cassandra Clare

“I can manage that. And besides—what could you do about it, Kel?” It was like having a knife dipped in acid twisted deep in his side. He thought he might have actually flinched. Kill him, Kel thought.

“Why are you being so nice to me?” she says instead. He blinks. “We’re friends. We’ve always been friends.”

“Second,” he said, “there is always the danger that you might fall in love with me. I am very appealing.” Anjelica regarded him with great seriousness. “I shall,” she said gravely, “let you know if such a thing occurs.”

Inside, the Prince is watching a red-haired girl read a book with the expression of a starving man staring at a plate of food.

“I asked for pleasure, and you gave me that,” she said. “I have never felt that sort of thing before. I probably never will again.”

Having kissed her, touched her, how could he be able to return to a life in which he could do none of those things?

“You say that,” Anjelica said slowly, “but I find Conor is not at all the way he was painted. I was told he was a wastrel, that he lived his life for pleasure, for drinking and gambling, for bedding anyone who caught his fancy. That he was irresponsible and up to his ears in debt. Instead I find him almost grimly responsible. He is almost always in the library or closeted with his advisers or his father. And when I catch a glimpse of him, when he thinks no one is looking, he seems so…sad.”

“You thought you could treat Antonetta as you treat everyone else. You thought she had no one to protect her.” He stood up. “You were wrong.”

Aron Benjudah lays a hand on her shoulder. And in that moment, Kaleb no longer sees before him the familiar figures of the Exilarch and the physician; he sees a woman wrapped in flames, her eyes like blank pearls, and beside her a great raven, with outstretched wings.

After all, in Castellane, the raven is a bird of ill omen, but to the Ashkar, the raven is the symbol of Judah Makabi, who had protected the Goddess in her most vulnerable time and led the Ashkar people to freedom.

“Oh, I believe that Kel loves you,” Antonetta said carelessly. “But you will never be equals. You will always have power over him. He may resent that.”

Conor opened his eyes. Tell me, Kel thought. Tell me. I will fix it for you.

“Are you in love with him?” he asked. “Because he is certainly in love with you.”

“That first night you were at the Palace, they all marveled at how clever you were. I thought, better he were not so clever. That one will know too much to believe in glory and honor. He will always see too much to be at peace with what he is destined to be.”

He would have known it anywhere. If I were dead and buried and those feet walked over my grave, I would know those footsteps.

“but I would rather that you ended my life than that you let anyone else do it. My life was always yours anyway.”