She reached out a hand as if to grab his, but lowered it—making her face tender and soft and bittersweet. “Why didn’t you tell me sooner? We could have been working toward this for weeks. We could have tried to solve the riddle together. If I’d known what Nehemia was going to do, how she could lie to me again and again … She betrayed me. In every possible way, Hobbs . She lied to my face, made me believe …” Her shoulders slumped. After a long moment, she took a step toward him. “Nehemia was no better than Arobynn or Clarisse in the end. Hobbs , you should have told me. About everything. I knew it wasn’t Mullison—he wasn’t smart enough. If you’d told me, I could have taken care of it.” A risk—a leap of faith. “For you … For us, I would have taken care of it.”But Hobbs gave her a hesitant smile. “She spent so much time complaining about Councilman Mullison that I knew he’d be the easiest one to blame. And thanks to that competition, he already had a connection to Grave.”“Grave didn’t
She didn’t remember anything after the first two swings of her sword, only that she’d suddenly seen Fleetfoot come flying at the creature. The sight had distracted her enough for the Assassin to get past her guard, its long, white fingers grabbing her by the hair and slamming her head into the wall.Then darkness.She wondered whether she’d died and awoken in hell as she opened her eyes to a pulsing headache—and the sight of Bolton , circling the pale demon, blood dripping from both of them. And then there were cool hands on her head, on her neck, and Christopher crouching in front of her as he said, “Mia .”She struggled to her feet, her head aching even more. She had to help Bolton . Had to—She heard a rip of clothing and a yelp of pain, and she looked at Bolton in time to see him grasp the cut on his shoulder, inflicted by those filthy, jagged nails. The creature roared, its overlong jaw gleaming with saliva, and it lunged again for the captain.Mia tried to move, but she wasn’t f
She knew the shift had happened, because it hurt like hell. A flash of blinding pain as her features ripped free of the hold that hid them. The Assassin lunged, and she plummeted into the well of power that was suddenly overflowing inside of her.Skills , savage and unforgiving, erupted out of her, punching into the creature and sending it flying. Flame—years ago, her power had always manifested as some form of fire.She could smell everything, see everything. Her heightened senses pulled her attention every which way, telling her that this world was wrong, and she needed to get out now.But she wouldn’t get out, not until Bolton and Fleetfoot made it to safety.The creature stopped rolling, on its feet in an instant, and Mia put herself between it and Bolton . The Assassin sniffed at her, sinking onto its haunches.She lifted Damaris and bellowed her challenge.From far off in the mist, roars answered. One of them came from the thing in front of her.She looked at Bolton , still crou
Though Mia ’s Dark knight senses were extinguished, she could swear she still smelled Hobbs ’s cologne as she moved toward the sewer tunnel, still smelled the blood on him.He had destroyed everything. He’d had Nehemia assassinated, had manipulated them both, had used Nehemia’s death to drive a wedge between her and Bolton , all in the name of power and revenge …She would take him apart. Slowly.I know what you are, he’d said. She didn’t know what Arobynn had told him about her heritage, but Hobbs had no idea what sort of darkness lurked inside her, or what sort of monster she was willing to become in order to make things right.Ahead of her, she could hear muffled curses and banging against metal. By the time she reached the sewer tunnel, she knew what had happened. The grate had slid shut, and none of Hobbs ’s attempts to open it had worked. Perhaps the gods did listen sometimes. Mia smiled, drawing both
Bolton watched blood bubble out of Hobbs ’s lips as Mia let him slump to the stone floor. She stared down at the body, her final words to him hovering in the air, running claws over Bolton ’s already chilled skin. She closed her eyes, tilting her head back as she took a long breath—as if she were embracing the death before her, and the stain it left as payment for her vengeance.He had arrived in time to hear Hobbs beg for his life—and utter the words that had been his last mistake. Bolton shifted his boot against the step to warn her that he was there. How much of her Dark knight senses did she retain when she looked like a human?Hobbs ’s blood spread across the dark stones, and Mia opened her eyes as she slowly turned to Bolton . The blood had soaked the ends of her hair, turning them a brilliant red. And her eyes … There was nothing there, as though she’d been hollowed out. For a heartbeat, he wondered if she would kill him, too—just for being there, for seeing the dark truth of h
“You still can’t trust me,” he finished.She nodded. In this, she knew Hobbs had won, and hated him for it. “When I look at you,” she whispered, “all I want to do is touch you. But what happened that night … I don’t know if I can ever forget it.” The deepest cut on his cheek had scabbed, and she knew it would scar. “For my part, I am sorry for what I did to you.”He stood, wincing at his wounds, and walked over to her. “We both made mistakes,” he said in that voice that made her heart stumble.She found the nerve to turn to him, gazing up into his face. “How can you still look at me like that when you know what I truly am?”His fingers grazed her cheeks, warming her chilled skin. “Dark knight, assassin—no matter what you are, I—”“Don’t.” She stepped back. “Don’t say it.”She couldn’t give him everything again—not now. It wouldn’t be fair to either of them. Even if she ever learned to forgive him for picking the king over Nehemia, her journey to find the keys would require her to go f
When the council meeting was over, Luton did his best not to look at his father, who had been watching him so carefully while he’d announced his plans to the king, or at Christopher, whose sense of betrayal rippled off of him as the meeting went on. He tried to hurry back to the barracks, but he wasn’t all that surprised when a hand clapped on his shoulder and turned him around.“Mandy?” Christopher snarled.Luton kept his face blank. “If she’s capable of opening a portal like He did last night, then I think He needs to get out of the castle for a while. For all of our sakes.” Christopher couldn’t know the truth.“She’ll never forgive you for having her shipped off like that, to take down a whole country. And in such a public way—making a spectacle out of it. Are you mad?”“I don’t need her forgiveness. And I don’t want to worry about her letting in a horde of otherwordly creatures just because she’s missing her friend.”He hated each lie that came out of his mouth, but Christopher dr
The docks were crowded with sailors and slaves and workers loading and unloading cargo. The day was warm and breezy, the first hint of spring in the air, and the sky was cloudless. A good day for sailing.Christopher stood before the ship that would carry her through the first leg of the journey. It would sail to a prearranged location where a ship from Mandy would meet it to take aboard refugees fleeing the shadow of Adarlan’s empire. Most of the women traveling on her ship were already belowdecks. He shiftedthe fingers of her bandaged left hand, wincing at the dull pain radiating outward from her palm.He had hardly slept that night, holding Fleetfoot close to her instead. Saying good-bye an hour ago had been like ripping out a piece of her heart, but the dog’s leg was still too injured for her to risk the journey to Mandy .He hadn’t wanted to see Luton , hadn’t bothered saying good-bye, because He had so many questions for him that it was easier not to ask at all. Hadn’t he known