Page 183 of Infernal Bonds

I’d witnessed up close the power the forest held and what it could do to both the mind and body of an unsuspecting victim. I was determined to keep the curse from entering my body at all costs.

Even if it meant letting Cornaith’s vallants use their magic on me. With them, at least the guys would be present to make sure everything was done with my safety in mind.

“Why would you not want to know? I couldn’t imagine being in your position.”

“I never said I don’t wanna know. I said I don’t care if the reason I’m sick is related to what I am. It does nothing to help me now.”

Speculating about my biology seemed pointless. We’d gone over it a hundred times back home and in the palace. I was tired of it. Right now, all I felt like doing was sleeping through the misery, knowing it would only intensify the more time I spent away from the guys.

It took everything in my power not to let my mind wander to them. Dwelling on how sick they probably felt would drag me into a dark mental state, drowning out any chance to focus on escaping this mess.

I wished I’d gotten my phone out of Kavina’s car before coming with Rinlora.

“I don’t know how Dugorigi expects you to do much when you’re like this,” the woman who still hadn’t given me her name said. I’d asked, but she’d insisted it wasn’t important. “This whole thing is a mess, and I’m already regretting it.”

I didn’t know what she was talking about, but I latched onto the last thing she said. “So if you regret it, why don’t you let me leave? I won’t tell anyone.”

She sat at the table and brushed crumbs onto the floor. “You don’t seem like a bad person.”

“You don’t know me.”

“Would you rather I think you’re a bad person?”

“Well, no, not really.” I leaned back in my chair as another spasm seized my stomach. “But what are you basing your opinion on?”

I wasn’t sure what made me ask. It wasn’t as if her insight mattered in the grand scheme of things. But if I could get on her good side with casual conversation, maybe I could work on convincing her to set me free.

“Rinlora.”

I clenched my teeth.

I hadn’t expected Rinlora to betray me in the way she did. I’d thought we’d become friends—somewhat. She’d taken me to her special spot outside Alonia, a place she’d never taken someone before.

“What about her?”

“She speaks fondly of you.”

“And yet she brought me here.”

“She did as instructed.”

I rolled my eyes and folded my arms over my stomach.

I couldn’t figure out why betraying me seemed to make Rinlora uncomfortable. If she hadn’t wanted to betray me, then why had she? Why bring me to her mother? She could have taken me back to the palace and told the guards her mother’s plans. Hell, she could have told Kavina at the mall.

But she’d done none of that.

Instead, she’d taken me to her mother without answering my questions and then injected me with the drugs herself. She’d dirtied her hands all on her own. Her mother hadn’t forced her to drive that needle into my neck.

The list of people I couldn’t trust kept growing. I wondered who else I’d encountered since arriving in Elyrdin that I needed to be wary of. Maybe everyone who wasn’t the guys. At least they’d always been transparent about their issues.

“I don’t wanna talk about her. What did you mean about Dugorigi? What does Kairian’s father have to do with anything?”

“Master Cornaith wishes to form an alliance with the Sephra clan. He also sees you as a distraction to his son. Dugorigi showed interest in you during the Divine Fortune Ball, but by then, it was too late to do anything about it.”

There was so much to unpack with that declaration. How much would she be willing to share?

“Interest in me? What does that mean?”