Free Shades of Blood by Samantha Young

asset.”
    Intense fury choked her. Flashes of images, of Stellan ’ s anxious eyes on her, of blood, of his hair, of a blade through the flesh, all rained down over her eyes and she rubbed at them in agony. “Great enough asset to warrant messing with my head?”
    “I thought perhaps you were ready.”
    Anyone else might have missed the catch in the back of his throat but Eden didn ’ t. She glanced up sharply and caught the pain in his eyes before he carefully masked it. She gasped, “Noah is right, isn ’ t he?”
    Her guardian frowned. “What?”
    “This isn ’ t you.” Relief flooded her only to be replaced by panic. By fear. And only one man caused her fear. “This is Darius ’ doing.”
    When Cyrus didn ’ t reply the anger returned. Darius wasn ’ t here. She was safe. For now. “Why are you protecting him? He ’ s doing this to me, isn ’ t he?!”
    “Eden, please calm down. I will not discuss this if you continue to yell.”
    She gulped, trying to collect herself. Finally, she nodded carefully, her hands curled into fists that held the rage in. “Why? What does Darius expect to gain from this?”
    “Eden, you must understand…” he sighed again and drew towards her. They locked gazes, each begging the other for reassurance. Cyrus lowered himself to the couch and out of respect, so she wasn ’ t standing over him, Eden sat down too. “Darius is unlike the rest of the Ankh. He is favored. He is the first. Thus all he cares about is the protection of his people and the proper carriage of his duty.”
    “What does that have to do with this?”
    “Darius thinks logically, rationally, and for the most part he carries out actions without emotion coloring his decisions. He does only what is best for his warriors and for our purpose.” Cyrus stopped, his young face growing old with memories. “He makes decisions I am unable to but those are always the right decisions despite how distasteful they may be. He has only ever faltered from his path when his decision was affected by his feelings for Valeria and me. That is why he stays away now. He cares about us. It colors his actions. Afraid of growing attached to anyone else, Darius lives and hunts alone and refuses to take up his rightful place as Princeps.”
    “But you do what he says anyway.”
    “When it comes to Darius I am Princeps only in name.” Cyrus smiled sadly.
    “So…” Eden tried not to tremble with nerves. “What ’ s his thought process behind the whole Romany thing?”
    “When he met you, that day we arrived in Scotland, you were still a soul eater. He garnered enough from you then to agree that you should be allowed the transition, to turn, to train, to be Ankh.”
    “And now?”
    “Now… he… he believes that facing your enemy will decide your future.”
    The heaviness of that sentence settled around them and Eden flinched from the fear in her guardian ’ s eyes. “Meaning if I go after her, if I hurt her…” Darius will kill me.
    “He just needs to know you understand your duty, Eden. That when you became Ankh that overwhelming sense of justice, of right and wrong, of destiny… that it is a strong part of you. That when faced with Romany you will do what is right. That you will understand she was merely carrying out her duty and that she never meant to hurt you.”
    He didn ’ t understand. Cyrus didn ’ t understand. Of all the people… shouldn ’ t he understand the pain of losing someone you love, of needing to kill the person responsible? Wasn ’ t that justice? An eye for an eye?
    The agony of her turmoil tightened around her throat and she had to cough a little before she could get the words out. “She killed my brother. Don ’ t try to rationalize that, Cyrus. Especially after Val ’ s little revelation about our gift ,” she spat the word gift, still disbelieving they had kept something so huge from her. “Stellan would be alive. He would be alive and human and I wouldn ’ t have been kept in