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Unexpected Rise of Leonard Storm Chapter 167
Well, it’d certainly be helpful if they bothered to read less and hunt more. But the cats answered to no one and nothing, except, perhaps, their namesake, or whatever god had found a quiet home in the library, within Silba’s shadow. To offend one Baast Cat was to insult them all, and even though Matilda loved most animals—with the exception of some insects—she had been sure to treat the cats kindly, occasionally leaving morsels of food, or providing a belly rub or ear scratch whenever they deigned to command them.But there was no sign of those green eyes glinting in the dark, or of a scurrying mouse fleeing their path, so Matilda loosed a breath and set aside the ancient scroll, carefully placing it at the edge of the desk before pulling an Eyllwe tome toward her.The book was bound in black leather, heavy as a doorstop. She knew a little of the Eyllwe language thanks to living so close to its border with a mother who spoke it fluently—certainly not from the father who had hailed f
Unexpected Rise of Leonard Storm Chapter 168
The footsteps on the other side of the stack neared. Matilda stood on trembling knees, taboss a steadying breath as she forced herself to walk again. Forced herself to leave that dead healer in the dark. Forced herself to lift her bag as ifnothing had happened, as if showing the satchel to someone ahead.But with the angle of the stacks—the person didn’t know that.“Just finishing up my reading for the night,” she called to her invisible salvation ahead. She sent up a silent prayer of thanks to Silba that her voice held steady and merry. “Cook is expecting me for a last cup of tea. Want to join?”Maboss it seem like someone was expecting her: another trick she’d pickedup.Matilda cleared five more steps before she realized whoever it was had again halted.Buying her ruse.Matilda dashed the last few feet to the hallway, spotted a cluster of acolytes just emerging from another haze of stacks, and hurtled flat out toward them.Their eyes widened at Matilda ’s approach, and all sh
Unexpected Rise of Leonard Storm Chapter 169
Matilda sat up, any lingering color draining from her face. “Tumelun’s body was not drained. Hadiza —the Healer on High herself declared it was a suicide.”There was, of course, a chance the two deaths weren’t connected, a chance that Kashin was wrong about Tumelun. Part of Leonard prayed it was so. But even if they were unrelated, what had happened last night—“You need to warn the Carl ,” Matilda said, seeming to read his mind.He nodded. “Of course. Of course I will.” Damned as the entire situation wasPerhaps it was the in he’d been waiting for with the Carl . But he studied her haggard face, the fear there. “I’m sorry—to have brought you into this. Has security been increased around the Torre?”“Yes.” A breathy push of sound. She scrubbed at her face. “And you? Did you come here under guard?”She threw him a frown. “In plain daylight? In the middle of the city?” Leonard crossed his arms. “I would put nothing past the Valg.”She waved a hand. “I won’t be heading alone into a
Unexpected Rise of Leonard Storm Chapter 170
Matilda panted, her legs sprawled before her on the rug, her back resting against the couch on which Lord Leonard now gasped for breath as well.Her mouth was dry as sand, her limbs trembling so violently that she could barely keep her hands limp in her lap.A spitting sound and a little thump told her he’d removed the bit.He’d roared around it. His bellowing had been almost as bad as the gang itself.It was a void. It was a new, dark hell.Her gang had been a pulsing star that flared against the wall that the darkness had crafted between the top of his spine and the rest of it. She knew— knew without testing—that if she bypassed it, jumped right to the base of his spine … it would find her there, too.But she had pushed. Pushed and pushed, until she was sobbing for breath.Still, that wall did not move.It only seemed to laugh, quietly and sibilantly, the sound laced with ancient ice and malice.She’d hurled her gang against the wall, letting its swarm of burning white lights a
Unexpected Rise of Leonard Storm Chapter 171
Everything hurt.Leonard did not let himself think about what he had seen. What had flashed through his mind as that pain had wracked him, burned and flayed and shattered him. What—and who he’d seen. The body on the bed. The collar on a throat. The head that had rolled.He could not escape them. Not while Matilda had worked.So the pain had ripped through him, so he had seen it, over and over.So he had roared and screamed and bellowed.She’d stopped only when she’d slid to the floor.He’d been left hollow. Void.She still had not wanted to spend more than a moment necessary with him.He didn’t blame her.Not that it mattered. Though he reminded himself that she’d asked him to help tomorrow.In whatever way he could.Leonard ate his meal where Matilda had left him, still in his undershorts. Kadja didn’t seem to notice or care, and he was too aching and tired to bother with modesty.Aelin would likely have laughed to see him now. The man who had stumbled out of her room after she’d
Unexpected Rise of Leonard Storm Chapter 172
That was indeed worry tightening his face as he leaned against the wall of the building. “Thank you for the report.”It was not her place to ask about it—not for anyone, and certainly not for the most powerful family in the world. But Nasri said quietly, “My mother died when I was thirteen.” She gazed up at the near-glowing Torre. “The old boss … you know what he did to those with gang . To healers gifted with it. So there was no one who could save my mother from the wasting sickness that crept up on her. The healer we managed to find admitted to us that it was likely from a growth inside my mother’s breast. That she might have been able to cure her before gang vanished. Before it was forbidden.”She had never told anyone outside of her family this story. Wasn’t sure why she was really telling him now, but she went on, “My father wanted to get her on a boat to sail here. Was desperate to. But war had broken out up and down our lands. Ships were conscripted into Eagles gang ’s servi
Unexpected Rise of Leonard Storm Chapter 173
what he’d once been that made him tense up in their presence, refuse to even consider training with them.But that was not a conversation to be had now—not here, and not with the light starting to return to his eyes.So Matilda hitched up her hem and let Shen help her onto the horse.The skirts of her dress hiked up enough to reveal most of her legs, but she’d seen far more revealed here. In this very courtyard. Neither Shen nor any other guards so much as glanced her way. She turned to Leonard to order him to go ahead, but found his eyes on her.On the leg exposed from ankle to midthigh, paler than most of her golden-brown skin. She darkened easily in the sun, but it had been months since she’d gone swimming and basked in any sunlight.Leonard noticed her attention and snapped his eyes up to hers. “You have a good seat,” he told her, as clinically as she often remarked on the status of her patients’ bodies.Matilda gave him an exasperated look before nodding her thanks to Shen an
Unexpected Rise of Leonard Storm Chapter 174
Wheels hissed on gravel from nearby. He didn’t bother to look at the wheeled chair that an acolyte pushed closer. Didn’t bother to speak as they settled him in it, the chair shuddering beneath his weight.“Careful.” Matilda warned again.The girls lingered, the rest of the courtyard still watching. Had it been seconds or minutes since this ordeal had begun? He clenched the arms of the chair as Matilda rattled off some directions and observations. Clenched the arms harder as one of the girls stooped to touch his booted feet, to arrange them for him.Words rose up his throat, and he knew they’d burst from him, knew he could do little to stop his bellow to back off as that acolyte’s fingers neared the dusty black leather—Withered brown hands landed on the girl’s wrist, halting her mere inches away.Hadiza said calmly, “Let me.”The girls peeled back as Hadiza stooped to help him instead.“Get the ladies ready, Matilda ,” Hadiza said over a slim shoulder, and Matilda obeyed, usheri
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