2_-_court_of_mist_and_fury_a_-_sarah_j._maas

Why did they want to come here so badly? Why ask about my trove?
Like lapping waves, I sent my thoughts washing over his.
She is harmless. She is kind, and sad, and broken. You saw her with your people—you
saw how she treated them. How she treats you. Amarantha did not break that kindness.
I poured my thoughts into him, tinting them with brine and the cries of terns—wrapping
them in the essence that was Tarquin, the essence he’d given to me.
Take her to the mainland tomorrow. That’ll keep her from asking about the temple. She
saved Prythian. She is your friend.
My thoughts settled in him like a stone dropped into a pool. And as the wariness faded
in his eyes, I knew my work was done.
I hauled myself back, back, back, slipping through that ocean-and-pearl wall, reeling
inward until my body was a cage around me.
Tarquin smiled. “We’ll meet after breakfast. Unless Rhysand wants me for more
meetings.” Neither Cresseida nor Varian so much as glanced at him. Had Rhys taken care
of their own suspicions?
Lightning shot through my blood, even as my blood chilled to realize what I’d done—
Rhys waved a lazy hand. “By all means, Tarquin, spend the day with my lady.”
My lady. I ignored the two words. But I shut out my own marveling at what I’d
accomplished, the slow-building horror at the invisible violation Tarquin would never
know about.
I leaned forward, bracing my bare forearms on the cool wood table. “Tell me what there
is to see on the mainland,” I asked Tarquin, and steered him away from the temple on the
tidal causeway.
Rhys and Amren waited until the household lights dimmed before coming into my room.
I’d been sitting in bed, counting down the minutes, forming my plan. None of the guest
rooms looked out on the causeway—as if they wanted no one to notice it.
Rhys arrived first, leaning against the closed door. “What a fast learner you are. It takes
most daemati years to master that sort of infiltration.”
My nails bit into my palms. “You knew—that I did it?” Speaking the words aloud felt
too much, too … real.
A shallow nod. “And what expert work you did, using the essence of him to trick his
shields, to get past them … Clever lady.”
“He’ll never forgive me,” I breathed.
“He’ll never know.” Rhys angled his head, silky dark hair sliding over his brow. “You
get used to it. The sense that you’re crossing a boundary, that you’re violating them. For
what it’s worth, I didn’t particularly enjoy convincing Varian and Cresseida to find other