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Unexpected Rise of Leonard Storm Chapter 84
At their Test the next afternoon, Matilda stood in the training hall with her arms crossed, watching Kane spar with Grave. Kane knew who she was; all of her simpering and pretending and holding back had been for nothing. It had amused him.She clenched her jaw as Kane and Grave flew across the sparring ring, swords clanging. The Test was fairly simple: they were each given a sparring partner, and if they won their duel, they needn’t worry about being eliminated. The losers, however, would face judgment by Brullo. Whoever had performed the worst would be sent packing.To his credit, Grave held up well against Kane , even though she saw how his knees trembled from the effort. Nox, standing beside her, hissed as Kane shoved into Grave and sent him staggering back.Kane smiled throughout the entire thing, barely panting. Matilda clenched her hands into fists, pushing them hard against her ribs. In a flash of steel, Kane had his blade at Grave’s throat, and the pockmarked assassin
Unexpected Rise of Leonard Storm Chapter 85
Across the castle, Kaltain Rompier clapped lightly as a troupe of acrobats finished their tumbling. The performance had stopped at last. She didn’t feel inclined to watch peasants bouncing about in bright colors for hours, but Queen Georgina enjoyed it, and had invited her to sit beside the throne today. It was an honor, and had been arranged through Perrington. Perrington wanted her; she knew it. And if she pushed, she could easily get him to offer to make her his duchess. But duchess wasn’t enough—not when Leonard was still unmarried. Her head had been pounding for the past week, and today it seemed to throb with the words: Not enough. Not enough. Not enough. Even in her sleep, the pain seeped in, warping her dreams into nightmares so vivid she couldn’t remember where she was when she awoke. “How delightful, Your Majesty,” Kaltain said as the acrobats gathered their things. “Yes, they were rather exciting, weren’t they?” The queen’s green eyes were bright, and she smiled at Kaltai
Unexpected Rise of Leonard Storm Chapter 86
One of the guards, an aging man with thinning hair, saluted a second time and said, “Captain—you’re needed.”Though his features remained neutral, Maximus’s shoulders shifted, and his chin rose a bit higher. “What is it?” he said, a bit too quickly to pass for unconcerned.“Another body,” replied the guard. “In the servant’s passages.”The second guard, a slender, frail-looking young man, was deathly pale. “You saw the body?” Matilda asked him. The guard nodded. “How fresh?”Maximus gave her a sharp look. The guard said, “They think it’s from last night —from the way the blood’s half-dried.”Maximus’s eyes were unfocused. Thinking—he was figuring out what to do. He straightened. “You want to prove how good you are?” he asked her.She put her hands on her hips. “Do I even need to?”He motioned the guards to lead the way. “Come with me,” he said to her over his shoulder, and—despite the body—she smiled a bit and followed him.As they departed, Matilda looked back at the target.Maximu
Unexpected Rise of Leonard Storm Chapter 87
Of course,” he said, a dark expression crossing his handsome face. She wasall too aware of how close his leg was, but she couldn’t bring herself to shift away.“And you’re not at all concerned that so many Champions have been brutally murdered at the hands of someone’s feral beast?”Leonard leaned in, his eyes fixed on hers. “All of those murders occurred in dark, isolated hallways. You’re never without guards—and your chambers are well-watched.”“I’m not concerned for myself,” she said sharply, pulling back a bit. Which wasn’t entirely true. “I just think it reflects poorly on your esteemed father to have all of this going on.”“When was the last time you bothered to care for the reputation of my ‘esteemed’ father?”“Since I became his son’s Champion. So perhaps you ought to devote some additional resources to solving these murders, before I win this absurd competition just because I’m the last one left alive.”“Any more demands?” he asked, still close enough for her lips to graze h
Unexpected Rise of Leonard Storm Chapter 88
“I’m being practical. There’s a difference. And you’re the Leaderof Gold Coast. You’re in a position where it’s possible for you to change Erilea for the better. You could help create a world where true love isn’t needed to secure a happy ending.”“And what sort of world would I need to create for that to happen?” “A world where men govern themselves.” “You speak of anarchy and treason.”“I do not speak of anarchy. Call me a traitor all you like—I’ve been convicted as an assassin already.”He sidled closer to her, and his fingers brushed hers—calloused, warm, and hard. “You can’t resist the opportunity to respond to everything I say, can you?” She felt restless—but at the same time remarkably still. Something was brought to life and laid to sleep in his gaze. “Your eyes are very strange,” he said. “I’ve never seen any with such a bright ring of gold.”“If you’re attempting to woo me with flattery, I’m afraid it won’t work.”“I was merely observing; I have no agenda.” He looked at his
Unexpected Rise of Leonard Storm Chapter 89
The next evening, Spencer stood on the second floor of the castle, looking over the courtyard. Below him, two figures slowly wove through the hedges. Matilda’s white cloak made her easy to spot, and Leonard could always be noticed by the empty circle of space around him.He should be down there, a foot behind, watching them, making sure she didn’t seize Leonard and use him to escape. Logic and years of experience screamed at him to be with them, even though six guards trailed them. She was deceitful, cunning, vicious.But he couldn’t make his feet move.With each day, he felt the barriers melting. He let them melt. Because of her genuine laugh, because he caught her one afternoon sleeping with her face in the middle of a book, because he knew that she would win.She was a criminal—a prodigy at killing, a Queen of the Underworld—and yet . . . yet she was just a girl, sent at seventeen to Endovier.It made him sick every time he thought about it. He’d been training with the guards at s
Unexpected Rise of Leonard Storm Chapter 90
Matilda didn’t hear him, and though they talked for a good hour afterward meandering through the grounds, she couldn’t get her heart to calm. Elena had to have known someone would recognize her amulet—and if this was the real thing. . The king could kill her on the spot for wearing not only an heirloom of his house, but something of power.Yet again, she could only wonder what Elena’s motives actually were.Matilda glanced from her book to the tapestry on the wall. The chest of drawers remained where she’d shoved it in front of the passageway. She shook her head and returned to her book. Though she scanned the lines, none of the words registered.What did Elena want with her? Dead queens usually didn’t come back to giveorders to the living. Matilda clenched her book. It wasn’t like she wasn’t fulfilling Elena’s command to win, either—she would have fought this hard to become the King’s Champion anyway. And as for finding and defeating the evil in the castle . . . well, now that it s
Unexpected Rise of Leonard Storm Chapter 91
Days passed without seeing Azar, and Matilda kept her mouth shut about the incident to Spencer or Leonard or anyone who visited her chambers. She couldn’t confront Azar—not without more concrete proof, not without ruining everything. So she spent her spare time researching the Wyrdmarks, desperate for a way to decipher them, to find those symbols, to learn what it all meant, and how it connected to the killer and the killer’s assasin. Amidst her worrying, another Test passed without incident or embarrassment—though she couldn’t say the same for the soldier who’d been sent home—and she kept up her intense training with Spencer and the other Champions. There were five of them left now. The final Test was three days away, and the duel two days after that. Matilda awoke on Yulemas morning and relished the silence. There was something inherently peaceful about the day, despite the darkness of her encounter with Azar. For the moment, the whole castle had quieted to hear the falling s
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