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“Why do you keep turning someone else’s compassion into a favor that you owe, instead of accepting that you are worthy of it?”
ley
“I didn’t tell you the whole truth at Elouve. When I said that I wanted to guard Kinaiya Lodge, it wasn’t just because of Zidan’s old enemies possibly seeking reprisals. It was also because I didn’t want you to seek out the Duchess of Astonbury again. We’d already decided that the next bed you tumbled into would be ours, if you were willing. But I’m growing impatient, waiting for you two to reach a consensus.”
proceeded to defile the nearby stones with the consequences of his disgusting imagination.
vambraces.
“Forgive him,” Xiaodan said. “He’s been looking after Mother since he arrived. He’s only been kindred for five years, and immaturity hasn’t quite left him yet.” “Five years? I thought he was Malekh’s younger brother.” “Adopted younger brother,” Malekh said. “I killed all my biological siblings some hundreds of years ago.” “Right. As one does.”
novitiate
“I was afraid. You both fit so perfectly together. There’s nothing I could possibly add to that.” With a gentleness he didn’t know the lord possessed, Malekh’s hand pressed against his mouth, face now inches away. Remy’s eyes drifted shut. The soft, quiet groan the vampire made reverberated down to his bones, making Remy ache.
If it was possible to kill him, then why not her?” The silence was unexpectedly palpable. Even Naji looked nervous. Malekh reacted little to his pronouncement, his features still carefully blank. Oddly enough, so was Xiaodan’s, every bit of emotion wiped clean from her normally expressive face.
The frenzied shuffled like that, too, and rattled the same way— He couldn’t—he couldn’t— He ran.
“I’m dying,” Remy said faintly. “Fucking fuck me if that’s what it takes.”
“I’m not going up there on your back,” Remy said stubbornly. “And you can’t bloody make me.” “FUCKING HELL,” Remy said not five minutes later, clinging on to Malekh’s back for dear life.
Malekh’s worried about you, but he hasn’t been human for centuries. I don’t think he knows how to give you the space you need to mourn.”
“Proper training requires the constant, vigorous testing of our subject,” Malekh’s voice was a soft, luxurious velvet, and somewhere on Remy’s neck, he felt a tiny bite with the promise of more to come. “And we are nothing, Pendergast, but constant and vigorous.”
He ignored me until I was seven, when he decided that if he had to acknowledge me as his sole legitimate heir, then I may as well be his weapon against those who’d disrespected him by murdering his wife. So you see, I’ve been a test subject all my life. It’s the one thing I know how to do, even if that doesn’t always come with bottles and syringes.”
“You braved the caves a second time for Zidan and me. You’ve been through so much. Stay in Chànggē Shuĭ with us. You’ve never been happy in Elouve. Ask Elke to join us if she’d like. If there is anything here that gives you even a modicum of happiness, please stay. We will cherish you, each and every one of us.”
“Ishkibal died on his hands and knees, begging for a mercy he did not deserve, Vasilik. I do not want to live as a king. I am content to be a man.”
He was too soft, like his father had said. Must have gotten it from his mother. And then he wondered if his mother had only been soft because she’d loved his father. Like kindness had ever been a sin.
“I have not sired many kindred. Many consider our long lives a boon, a gift that must be shared as indiscriminately as possible. I do not share in that sentiment. Eternity should be given only to those who can hold themselves responsible for it. Those I’ve begotten were often close to death, with little choice left but to turn them. Naji was the last.
Two old men who hated each other, forced into a shared secret for fear of either being exposed. Remy would have laughed at the irony in some other lifetime.
Xiaodan bent down and left soft kisses along his jaw. “And I know you love me too,” she whispered, “and I know you love Zidan, and you don’t need to ever say it. Just show me. Every day, for the rest of our lives, please show me.”
“You’re not to fight them until Xiaodan gives the word,” Malekh said. “You are not to leave my sight even then.” “You’re not my fucking father, Malekh,” Remy growled. “And not even he cares all this much.”
The First Court’s specialty was enthrallment, Malekh had told him. His one fear, the reason he had avoided confronting the First Court directly, was that they could compel him like the Night King had.
The song wore a lovely voice, but this new one, this was a beloved voice. There was a difference. There would always be a difference.
An arrow came whistling through the air. Just as before, the figure caught it in its hands. Remy turned to stare at the newcomer, who pulled back his own hood. “Get away from my son, you undead bitch,” Edgar Pendergast said.
For the briefest moment, he could have sworn he saw the woman disappear just before the light reached her; then there was nothing else but sun.
insouciant
“Did you ever even love her?” Remy asked bitterly. His father met his gaze. “Of course I did, Son,” he said calmly. “I wouldn’t hate her so much if I hadn’t.”
