A Poison Dark and Drowning (Kingdom on Fire #2)(77)

By the light of my fire, I could make out Maria’s terrified face. I nodded for her to be ready to leave the room. “I’m not going to marry Blackwood. Not ever.”

The shadows receded slowly, like a dark tide. Finding a moment of freedom, Maria bolted, throwing open the door. “Come on!” she called, but Rook snarled. If I tried to run, he’d attack.

“I’ll be all right,” I said. “Just go.”

“No, I won’t leave you.”

“Go!” I focused on Rook until at last I heard the door close.

“Do you promise?” His desperation showed. “Not to marry him?”

“Of course.”

My fire went out as he took me into his arms. It was too dark to see him now. “Then end this madness. Marry me,” he whispered, kissing me. “Tomorrow, we’ll go to the church.”

“There’s no hurry,” I said, petting his cheek. Keep him calm.

The darkness began to solidify again.

“I can’t be sure of you unless you do this,” Rook growled.

“You can trust me.”

“How can I trust you when I know how easily you lie?” His voice changed, deepened, grew angrier. “Swear that you’ll never be his.”

“What are you talking about? I’m not his. I’m my own person.”

“You won’t swear it,” he growled. “I should have known you’d sell yourself to the man with the best price.”

Sell myself? Fury ate my fear as the whispers around us grew louder. I launched flame into the air to keep the dark at bay, then embraced him. Rook clung to me, burying his face in my shoulder, coming back to himself. I felt as though I were walking the ledge of a cliff, one misplaced step away from falling. I kissed his hair.

“Don’t you know you’re the reason I’m alive?” he whispered, wrapping me so tightly in his arms that I knew there’d be no escape without one or both of us being hurt. “That night the soldiers brought me to Brimthorn, I’d no memory, not even of my own name. I sat in that cellar, fading away. And then I saw your light.” He kissed me. “You brought me medicine. You named me. Don’t you know that from that moment on, I was yours? All I’ve ever wanted was you,” he said into my ear. “And you’d give yourself to a man who could have anyone else in the world.” He gripped my shoulders painfully. “He can’t have the only thing I’ve ever claimed for myself.”

I was not some damned bauble to be traded from one man’s pocket to the next.

“Rook, stop it!” I flung a spark into his face, and he released me. These had not been Rook’s true words. This was not him. “I know what’s doing this to you.”

“You know?” He looked wild with terror. “Then for God’s sake tell me.”

Something dark and cold wrapped around my wrist, and I broke.

“You’re becoming a monster!” I screamed.

The voices stopped. The blackness rolled away, and I could see Rook clearly in the window’s dim light. “Korozoth’s power is poisoning you.” I got as far from him and the shadows as I could. “You’re becoming less than human.”

“Less than?” he said, barely breathing the words.

“That’s why Fenswick and Maria have worked so hard to find a cure. That’s why you have to take all those treatments. I wanted to protect you from it. Because I love you too much to let it have you.” Those last words came out as a sob.

“You wanted to protect me.” He stretched out his hands to examine the scars that decorated his wrists. It was as if he’d never seen them before. “But you’ve lied to me.”

“We thought that if you knew, it might hasten the transformation.” Rook gaped at me. “I did it to help you.”

“Protect me. As if I were a child?” I’d never imagined I could see Rook’s eyes full of hatred. “As if I were a pet.”

“No!” I gasped. The blackness around me teemed with whispers. My flames began to die as the darkness forced itself on me.

Something was happening: his teeth sharpened, his face grew thinner. “I will not be your toy! Your dog! Do you understand?”

I swore I could hear tendons popping, bones breaking like the snap of kindling.

“I’m sorry I kept it a secret!” My voice was high as he brought me closer to him. “I did it to help you.”

“I don’t want your help,” he snarled. “I want you.” He began to drag me down.

Screaming, I exploded in flame, the blast obliterating the dark container around me. Rook howled. There was an opening through the shadow, and I ran out the door. I thundered down the stairs. Back on the second floor, I sank to my knees and tried to think.

A hand gripped my shoulder.

“No!” I whirled around.

But it was only Blackwood, his stave at the ready, Maria behind him. She handed me Porridge. I clung to the stave.

“Told him,” she said breathlessly. Blackwood made to go upstairs, but I prevented him.

“What on earth is going on?” he snapped.

“Something dreadful’s happened,” I said. “We need to get everyone out of here now.” Below us, music lilted and the laughter rose and fell. All of sorcerer society was here tonight.