“It must be the walk that did it to me,” she said, trying to convince herself as to why she's feeling horny at the moment. “Or maybe, it’s just the alcohol doing something to my system.”“Maybe I won’t tell apologise to Richard, I can just show him. Oooh yeah. Make-up sex can be fun, even he isn’t exactly a stallion in bed. At least he has a decent sized tool, even if he’s not humongous.” she speaks to herself, giggling as she finds her way to the stairs. She puts her hand on the bannister and begin to creep up the stairs in the dark. For some reason, she could not stop giggling and she slaps her hand over her mouth to keep them from bubbling out. She was pretty sure Richard's Dad, Christopher was around, and she doesn't want to wake him up. As she gets to the top of the landing, a long hallway greets her. The Holts live in a mansion, so there are at least five or six bedrooms, plus an office that Richard's Dad, Christopher , uses. But Richard’s room is easy to find. He’s way at the

She had planned to spend the rest of the day following Archer from a distance, but as they walked from the tea court, Bolton informed her that the king had ordered her to assist with guard duty at a state dinner that night. And though she could think of a thousand excuses to get out of it, any suspicious behavior on her part could draw the wrong sort of attention. If she was actually going to listen to Eleanor this time, she needed the king—she needed his entire empire—to think she was his obedient servant.The state dinner was in the Great Hall, and it took all of Mia ’s self-control to keep from sprinting to the long table in the center of the room and horking down the food right off the plates of the gathered councilmen and preening nobility. Roasted lamb rubbed with thyme and lavender, duck glazed with orange sauce, pheasant swimming in green-onion gravy … Truly, it wasn’t fair.Bolton had stationed her by a pillar near the glass patio doors. Though she wasn’t wearing the royal gu

His training with the assassins must have paid off, because Christopher was across the carriage and brandishing a hidden dagger between them before she could blink. “Please,” he breathed, his chest rising and falling in uneven patterns. “Please, Laena.” She opened her mouth, ready to explain everything, but he was gasping down breaths, his eyes wide. “I can pay you.”A small, wretched part of her was fairly smug at the sight of him cowering. But she held up her hands, showing him she was unarmed—at least as far as he could see. “The king thinks you’re part of a rebel movement that’s interrupting his agenda.”A harsh, barked laugh—so raw that none of the smooth, lovely man was even recognizable in the sound. “I’m not part of any movement! Wyrd damn me, I might be a whore, but I’m not a traitor!” She kept her hands where he could see them, and opened her mouth to tell him to shut up, sit down, and listen. But he went on. “I don’t know anything about a movement like that—I haven’t even h

Mia didn’t get a meal, or take a bath, or see a healer for her shoulder. Instead, she hurried to the dungeon, not even looking at the guards that she passed. Exhaustion ripped at her, but fear kept her moving, almost sprinting down the stairs.They want to use me. They tricked me, Kaltain had said. And in Christopher ’s book of Adarlan’s noble lineages, the Rompier family had been listed as one with a strong Skills al line, supposedly vanished two generations ago.Sometimes I think they brought me here, Kaltain had said. Not to marry Perrington, but for another purpose.Brought Kaltain here, the way Maximus had been brought here. Maximus , of the White Fang Mountains, where powerful shamans had long ruled the tribes.Her mouth went dry as she strode down the dungeon hallway to Kaltain’s cell.She stopped in front, staring through the bars.It was empty.All that was left inside was Mia ’s cloak, discarded in the kicked-up hay.As if Kaltain had struggled against whoever had come to ta

MOTION IN WHITEThe cut on her arm throbbed, but Mia kept her hand steady as she dipped her finger again into her blood and traced the Troops on the wall, copying the symbols in the book with perfect precision. They formed an archway—a door—and her blood gleamed in the light of the candles she had brought.It had to be perfect—each symbol had to be flawless, or else it wouldn’t work. She kept pressing on the wound to keep it from clotting. Not everyone could harness the marks; no, The Walking Dead said there had to be power in the blood to do it. Maximus had clearly had some trace of power. That must be why the king had rounded up Kaltain and Roland, too. He’d used the keys to suppress Skills , but he must have some way of harnessing the innate power in someone’s blood—and the Troops s must be able to access that power, too.She drew another symbol, nearly finished with the archway.Their power could warp things. It had warped Maximus . But it had also allowed him to summon the ridder