Jane awoke, freezing and groaning from a relentless headache. That, she knew, was from hitting her head on the temple stones. She hissed as she sat up, and every inch of her body, from her ears to her toes to her teeth, gave a collective burst of pain. It felt as if she’d been pummeled by a thousand iron fists and left to rot in the cold. That was from the uncontrolled shifting she’d done yesterday. The gods knew how many times she’d shuddered between one form and the other. From the tenderness of her muscles, it had to have been dozens. But she hadn’t lost control of the Swords , she reminded herself as she rose, gripping the chipped bedpost. She pulled the pale robe tighter around her as she shuffled for the dresser and basin. After the bath, she’d realized she had nothing to change into and had stolen one of the many robes, leaving her reeking clothes heaped by the door. She’d barely made it to her room before she collapsed on the bed, pulled the scrap of blanket over her, and sle
Mercifully, Mark wasn’t forced to entertain Aedion again, and saw little of him outside of state dinners and meetings, where the general pretended he didn’t exist. He saw little of Mackenzie , too, which was a relief, given how awkward their conversations had been of late. But he’d begun to spar with the guards in the mornings. It was about as fun as lying on a bed of hot nails, but at least it gave him something to do with the restless, anxious energy that hounded him day and night.Not to mention all those cuts and scrapes and sprains gave him an excuse to go to the healers’ catacombs. Manuel , it seemed, had caught on to his training schedule, and her door was always open when he arrived.He hadn’t been able to stop thinking about what she’d said in his room, or wondering why someone who had lost everything would dedicate her life to helping the family of the man who had taken it all away. And when she’d said Because I had nowhere else to go … for a second, it hadn’t been Manuel b
Manuel kept her head down. She knew she’d been kept waiting in order to make her fret over what she’d done: accidentally knocking over her entire worktable and destroying not only countless hours and days of work, but also a good number of expensive tools and containers. “I slipped—I spilled some oil and forgot to wipe it up.”Amithy clicked her tongue. “Cleanliness, Manuel , is one of our most important assets. If you cannot keep your own workroom clean, how can you be trusted to care for our patients? For His Highness, who was there to witness your latest bout of unprofessionalism? I’ve taken the liberty of apologizing in person, and offered to oversee his future care, but …” Amithy’s eyes narrowed. “He said he would pay for the repair costs—and would still like you to serve him.”Manuel ’s face warmed. It had happened so quickly.As the blast of ice and wind and something else surged toward her, Manuel ’s scream had been cut off by the door slamming shut. That had probably saved t
Mackenzie didn’t put up a fight, though he knew he was as likely to receive death as he was answers. He recognized the sentries by their worn weapons and their fluid, precise movements. He’d never forget those details, not after he’d spent a day being held prisoner in a warehouse by them—and witnessed Jane cut through them as though they were stalks of wheat. They’d never known that it had been their lost queen who came to slaughter them. The sentries forced him to his knees in an empty room that smelled of old hay. Mackenzie found Aedion and a familiar-looking old man staring down at him. The one who had begged Jane to stop that night in the warehouse. There was nothing remarkable about the old man; his worn clothes were ordinary, his body lean but not yet withered. Beside him stood a young man Mackenzie knew by his soft, vicious laugh: the guard who had taunted him when he’d been held prisoner. Shoulder-length dark hair hung loose around a face that was more cruel than handsome, es
Vincent grinned. “There you are.” Blood—her blood—was on his teeth, on his mouth and chin. And those dead eyes glowed as he spat her blood onto the earth. She probably tasted like a sewer to him. There was a shrieking in her ears, and Jane lunged at him. Lunged, and then stopped as she took in the world with stunning clarity, smelled it and tasted it and breathed it like the finest wine. Gods, this place, this kingdom smelled divine, smelled like— She had shifted. She panted, even though her lungs were telling her she was no longer winded and did not need as many breaths in this body. There was a tickling at her neck—her skin slowly beginning to stitch itself together. She was a faster healer in this form. Because of the magic … Breathe. Breathe. But there it was, rising up, wildfire crackling in her veins, in her fingertips, the forest around them so much kindling, and then— She shoved back. Took the fear and used it like a battering ram inside herself, against the power, shov
It was far too easy to lie to his men about the bruises and cuts on his face when Saul returned to the castle—an unfortunate incident with a drunk vagrant in Rifthold. Enduring the lies and the injuries was better than being carrion. Chaol’s bargain with Aiden and the rebels had been simple: information for information.He’d promised more information about their queen, as well as about the king’s black rings, in exchange for what they knew regarding the king’s power. It had kept him alive that night, and every night afterward, when he’d waited for them to change their minds. But they never came for him, and tonight, he and Aiden waited until well past twelve before slipping into Jane ’s old rooms.It was the first time he’d dared return to the tomb since that night with Jane and Vincent , and the skull-shaped bronze knocker, Mort, didn’t move or speak at all. Even though Saul wore the Elena at his throat, the knocker remained frozen. Perhaps Mort only answered to those with Branno
The black eye was still gruesome, but it improved over the next week as Jane worked in the kitchens, tried and failed to shift with Vincent , and generally avoided everyone. The spring rains had come to stay and the kitchen was packed every night, so Jane took to eating dinner on the shadowed steps, arriving just before the Story Keeper began speaking. Story Keeper—that’s what Emmy was, a title of honor amongst both Fae and humans in Wendlyn. What it meant was that when he began telling a story, you sat down and shut up. It also meant that he was a walking library of the kingdom’s legends and myths. By that time, Jane knew most of the fortress’s residents, if only in the sense that she could put names to faces. She’d observed them out of instinct, to learn her surroundings, her potential enemies and threats. She knew they observed her, too, when they thought she wasn’t paying attention. And any shred of regret she felt at not approaching them was burned up by the fact that no one bo
Jane's fire was still crackling, the rain still pounding beyond the cave mouth. But the forest had gone quiet. Those little watching eyes had vanished.She uncoiled to her feet, spear in one hand and a stake in the other, and crept to the narrow cave entrance. With the rain and the fire, she couldn’t make out anything. But every hair on her body was standing, and a growing reek was slithering in from the forest beyond. Like leather and carrion. Different from what she’d whiffed at the barrows. Older and earthier and … hungrier.Suddenly, the fire seemed like the stupidest thing she had ever done.No fires. That had been Vincent ’s only rule while trekking to the fortress. And they had stayed off the roads—veering away entirely from the forgotten, overgrown ones. Ones like the path she’d spied nearby.The silence deepened.She slipped into the drenched forest, stubbing her toes on rocks and roots as her eyes adjusted to the dark. But she kept moving ahead—curving down and away from th