Igniting Darkness (Courting Darkness Duology #2) - Robin LaFevers Page 0,80

announcement. It would not have been well received. Besides,” I add softly, “things have not gotten smoother while you were gone.”

He sighs. “I would have been surprised if they did.”

There is so very much to tell him that I hardly know where to begin. “I suppose there is a piece of good news,” I say lightly. “I found the missing initiate.” And then I tell him of Genevieve, trying to smooth over some of the rougher edges of her story.

Beast swears. “Are you certain she is not working for France?”

“I was not at first,” I admit, “but now I am certain.” I sigh deeply, then tell him of Fremin coming to my room, killing him, and how Genevieve took the blame.

He is quiet a long moment. “You have been busy while I was gone,” he says lightly, even as he pulls me closer, as if he would protect me from all the ills the world has to offer.

“As have you,” I remind him. “There is more. Your father is here.”

His entire body grows so still it is as if he has been turned to stone. “I have no father.”

“Your sire, then. You know who I mean, Beast.”

He pulls away from me to lie down on his back. The chill I feel has nothing to do with the removal of his body heat. “Captain Dunois spoke true. The resemblance between the two of you will be unmistakable if you are in the same room together. People are sure to notice and comment. I have already warned the queen.”

He turns his head to me, a wounded look in his eye. Needing to touch him, I place my hand on his cheek. “We cannot let her go stumbling into quagmires if we can help it, and she thought nothing less of you for it.”

“I think less of me for it,” he mumbles.

“That is because you are a turnip brain. Besides, you cannot tell me the d’Albret blood holds no influence over me, yet also claim your father’s blood holds sway over you.”

He moves swiftly, rising up on his elbow and towering over me. “Have you forgotten the battle lust? The savageness that comes over me?”

“How can I forget that which has saved countless lives, yours and mine included, countless times?”

He closes his eyes, as if steeling himself against the comfort I offer. “It is just as savage as he is.”

“No. It is a gift—however much a cursed one—from your saint. His is born of his own brutality and crudeness. Yours is something that comes over you when your saint bids you act. They are entirely different things, Beast.”

His arms tighten almost painfully around me, sending a faint whoosh of air from my lungs. He eases his hold, but does not let go of me.

 Chapter 44

Genevieve

It is easy enough to slip away. Even with three hundred nobles, church officers, and foreign dignitaries standing between me and the door that leads out of the grand salon where the coronation ball is being held. When I am certain both the king and regent cannot see me, I allow the ebb and flow of the crowd to carry me toward the exit, no different than a small boat bobbing on a turbulent sea.

Along with granting me his permission to roam the palace grounds, the king bid me to enjoy tonight’s ball as well. While he has made my meeting with Maraud easier by granting such freedoms, I am certain that was not his intent. If he learns of it, it could set everything back.

So I will make certain he does not learn of it.

The sentries at the door barely notice me. They are not posted to keep anyone inside, nor out, for that matter. They are merely part of the pomp of the occasion.

The hallways and galleries are lit only by torches, which provide enough shadows for me to cling to in order to disguise my passage through the sparsely populated galleries and corridors. When I reach the ground floor, I clutch the shadows more firmly, then step outside into the night.

I hurry past the armory to the blacksmith’s shop on the far side of it, every nerve in my body ajumble. I am both hot and cold, excited and terrified. I do not allow myself to think of how my carefully built trust with the king will crumble if he learns of our meeting, and focus instead on the debt I owe Maraud.

But of course, that debt is not the only reason.

I wish to see him