33
Iawoke the next morning, for once well-rested, starfished across the mattress with a pleasant soreness between my legs. Casimir’s intoxicating scent still lingered on my skin, and I blushed at the memory of how it came to be there.
Opening my eyes, I flipped over on the bed, my dark hair spilling like ink across the ivory pillow. It was empty. A bolt of anxiety shot through me. Had he left? I scrambled toward the ledge to see Casimir already up and brewing coffee in the kitchen.Stop being paranoid, Arden. Hastily gathering my clothes from the floor, I tugged them on, avoiding making eye contact with my reflection in the mirror on the wall. I was sure I looked like a gremlin, and I desperately needed a bath.
“What time is it?” I called down to Casimir as I clambered down the ladder to the main floor.
“Nearly two in the afternoon,” Casimir replied, arching a brow at my appearance. “If you’d like to bathe before breakfast…” He jerked his chin in the direction of the bathroom.
“Are you implying I look like I need a shower?” I glanced down at my rumpled clothes and patted my frizzy hair.
He gave me a roguish wink. “Not at all. Just being a polite host.”
Doing my best to maintain whatever little dignity remained to me, I cleared my throat and said, “In that case, I might take you up on your offer,” and scurried off to the bathroom.
As it turned out, a hot soak in Casimir’s claw-footed tub vastly improved my mood. The bath was wide and deep enough to submerge myself in. The sink was a curved marble basin adorned with a gold faucet and surrounded by sconces in the shape of seashells.
After brushing my teeth with the spare toothbrush I’d found in a drawer, I dressed and combed my hair again, which was now silky and smooth thanks to Casimir’s wide collection of hair products. I made a mental note to tease him about them later. I emerged from the bathroom to find him waiting for me with a furious expression on his face. Mystified by the sudden change in his demeanor, I opened my mouth to ask him what was wrong when my gaze fell to his hands, and I stopped dead in my tracks.
He was holding theBook of Erebos.
My chagrin at being caught out was immediately followed by an irrational sense of betrayal at his having the audacity to search my bag.
“I knew something was wrong last night when you threw the Book into the fire, when it didn’t make a single sound as it burned.” He spoke softly, but his tone belied the rage blazing behind his eyes. “You tricked me.”
He might’ve sounded surprised, if he wasn’t so angry. “Let me explain.”
“EXPLAIN WHAT?” he bellowed. “Explain why you intentionally swapped out the book for a fake and made me believe we destroyed the real one?”
I faltered at his expression, contorted with rage.
“Well?” he demanded.
“I… I couldn’t let you destroy the Book,” I confessed. “It’s part of my bargain with Evren.”
The silence that followed my declaration was deafening. I watched Casimir’s chest rise and fall with short, heavy breaths.
After a long moment, he spoke. “Part of your bargain was to prevent me from destroying the Book.” It wasn’t a question. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I wanted to tell you!” I cried. “I justcouldn’t—” Only then did it dawn on me that perhaps the wording of my bargain had magically dissuaded me from revealing the details to Casimir.
“Will you vow to do all in your power to ensure the Darkseer does not destroy the Book?”
All in my power.
Revealing the truth to Casimir in any part would have made forestalling the Book’s destruction that much more difficult.
“If I’d told you the truth, you wouldn’t have let me destroy it. And then… ” I let the implication hang in the air between us.
Casimir bristled. “Do you truly believe I would’ve destroyed the Book and watched you succumb to the consequences of breaking your bloodbargain?”
“I don’t know what you might’ve done,” I admitted.
Dragging a hand through his bedraggled curls, he sighed deeply. “Well, regardless of your low opinion of me, this changes things.”
I winced.
“Destroying theBook of Erebosis no longer an option,” he said.