Eujia hadn’t returned with Henlas, and he was so busy showing everyone his supposed blessing that I couldn’t reach him to ask where she’d gone. I led the guards back to her room and thankfully found her in the hallway leading to it.
“What happened?” I asked.
“Inside, please.” We left the guards in the hallway. “He said he had a vision of a demon and asked for my blessing. I gave him one, and those markings appeared on his hands.”
He was supposed to keep that to himself. “Has this happened before?”
“No, never. He said he felt Isenna when the blessing sank in.”
“You blessed him in Isenna’s name?”
“I know he doesn’t deserve that, but he was begging, and I needed to get him off my back.”
“So you, what, shielded him from evil?”
“I guess so.”
Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck.
“What’s wrong?”
I laughed. “Just that now my threat is useless.”
“What threat? You haven’t even told me what you did. Maybe if you had, I wouldn’t have blessed him so fucking well. He obviously doesn’t know your face, and he said the demon showed him terrible things. What did you do?”
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“One of the Spymaster’s well-kept secrets.”
“That he gave up to you? Please, I’m not an idiot.”
“What can I say? I’ve made a good impression.”
“You’re full of it. Tell me.”
“Sorry, can’t.” I headed for the door.
She blinked into my way. “You’re not leaving until you tell me.”
I grinned and dropped into her desk chair, crossing an ankle over my knee. “Then I guess I’m not leaving. What a scandal that’ll raise.”
She stomped over to glare down at me. “I thought we were going to work together. You know all about me, but I know next to nothing about you. How am I supposed to trust you if you won’t even answer a simple question?”
A hint of my Rage was starting to simmer. “Because it isn’t a simple question.”
“Why?”
I rolled my eyes. “Because it’s complicated.”
“Do not start with me. Why won’t you tell me the truth?”
And my patience broke. I jumped up, and she hurried a few steps back. “You want to know so badly?” I let my Rage boil to the surface, and I knew my eyes had turned based on the shock on her face. My fangs elongated slightly, but I kept my claws hidden. “I spiked his drink with a hallucinogen and let him believe I was the demon. His visions were his own imagination.”
She had gone pale, and she was breathing fast. Too fast.
My Rage vanished, and I took a step closer. “I’m sorry. Eujia, I’m sorry. Sit down. Breathe.”
She backed away and sat on her mattress but didn’t take her eyes off me. “You’re feral.”
“Part feral,” I said.
She looked like she might be sick, and for good reason. She didn’t need to know the details.
“I’m sorry I scared you. I can control it, I promise.”
She sniffled. “Now Henlas thinks he’s protected from you. Gods damn it.”
“He already called off the wedding for now. He can’t backtrack on that. And maybe now he’ll worship the ground you walk on.”
Her face went blank. “Or he’ll be even more determined to claim me.”
My eyes blackened again, and she flinched. “I will not let that happen.”
Color returned to her cheeks. “Then do whatever you need to do tonight.”
“I’ll get started as soon as the guard changes.”