Radiant Shadows (Wicked Lovely 4)

Devlin opened his door. “Ani?”

She stretched.

“Ani,” he repeated.

“You can come or stay here. I’ll be right back,” she assured him, and then she darted into the woods.

It had been forever since she’d run, and when she had run, Gabriel always kept her carefully surrounded by Hounds. She hadn’t been able to decide her own course. The freedom of running as she wanted was unprecedented in her life— and so was being chased.

Ani wasn’t surprised that he followed. In truth, she was glad. It was unexpectedly thrilling to feel like prey.

Devlin kept pace almost as well as a Hound. It made her wonder what his lineage was.

After about twenty minutes, she stopped, stretched, and waited for him. His emotions were still securely tamped down, unreadable to her.

“You’re exhausting,” he said.

“I’m what?” She leaned against a tree, watching him close the last few yards between them.

“Exhausting, tiring, capable of wearing on my very last bit of peace.” He faced her, as if his attention was only on her, but she had no doubt that he knew where every faery near them was. Because he is a predator too. Most of those faeries had vanished as she and Devlin raced through the woods and along the highway.

“What were you thinking?” His voice lowered enough that she had to suppress a shiver. He was hiding some- thing—several somethings if her instincts were right.

“That I needed a run. You chose to come with me, so don’t go thinking that you’re the one calling all the shots.” She swung her leg to kick him in the face.

He caught her foot. “No. You had your play. We need to go.”

Ani jerked her foot free. She wasn’t very good at taking orders, not even when instinct told her that he was right. “It’s not your life in dang—”

“Don’t.” He held her gaze, and it wasn’t frustration in his eyes. Anger burned there, intense enough that she didn’t need to be Dark Court to feel it.

It was exhilarating. Despite being a creature of the High Court, Devlin had a shadowed core that was everything her own court was supposed to be. He was everything she had wanted to find in her own court: he saw her as an equal, yet he still wanted to keep her safe. He didn’t dismiss her challenges or bow to them.

“Go back to the steed,” he started.

“No.” She leaned closer. “I want answers before I go anywhere with you.”

He jerked a hand through his hair and narrowed his gaze. “Gods. Maybe I should have killed you when you were still a mewling pup.”

Ani froze.

“Say that again.”

He turned away.

She grabbed his arm. “Say. It. Again. Now.”

He shook her off with as much effort as he’d need to brush away a moth. “Let it go, Ani.”

“It was you. At our house. You…” Ani stumbled backward and dropped to the ground. She stared up at him. “You killed my dam.”

His marble-white face showed no remorse, no pain for taking away the mortal who’d birthed her. “I keep order for the High Queen. It is my purpose.”

My mother.

“You killed Gabriel’s lover. My mother… Why?”

“It’s what I do, Ani. I put things back in order. My queen has enough trouble with the half-breeds of other courts. Dark Court progeny are unpredictable. Some”—he looked at her pointedly—“are more a threat than others. I was sent to correct the problem.”