A Hunger Most Dark novel · Chapter 22 of 24

Chapter 22: What She Would Say

Lenore's POV

Corwin had set out tea.

It stood on the writing desk by the window, two cups on a tray, with the small brass key lying beside the sugar.

He wanted me to see it.

"Sit, Len. You look cold."

"I'm angry."

"Even better. People decide well when they're angry. It cuts away the sentiment."

I did not sit.

He poured his own cup and drank, and he looked as he always had, handsome and warm and easy.

"I'll be brief," he said. "At Midwinter the guilds vote on Ashkarr's seat. He has torn up forty thousand crowns and told the city he's a biter. Half the river houses have already left him."

"I know. I watched him do it."

"He'll lose the seat. Then the house, because he pledged it for you." He set the cup down. "He is going under, Len, and he'll take you with him unless you step off the plank."

"What do you want?"

"Very little. You stand up in the hall at Midwinter and tell the guilds what they already half suspect. That he fed on you in the stable yard against your will. That he bites you now because you dare not refuse."

"That's a lie."

"It's a story. You'd be believed. You have the scar, the guild has the bite entry in his own words, and you have a face that looks wounded when it wants to."

I said nothing.

"In return," Corwin said, "I'll sign over the Rooke seal. You'd be head of the house, Len. The sentence is lifted, the cast-out order burned, the name clean. The house on this street is yours, and the strongroom, and whatever's in it."

He laid a hand on the little brass key.

"And the letter, if you like. I'll let you give it to him yourself, after the vote."

I had wanted all of that for fifteen years.

← Chapter 21 · All chapters · Chapter 23 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend