Page 129 of Mistress of Lies

He knew what Isaac was asking for, and he reached for that power deep within him, digging through the ashes and dust. “Let me go,” he commanded.

But, as he feared, it was gone. All that remained was an empty cavern in his chest where he should have found the power he had spent his entire life trying to master and control. That lived within him, creeping out and tainting his words, desperate to be used. The thing that had shaped his entire life. It simply wasn’t there.

He was empty.

“No,” he snarled. Not now. Not like this. Not when he actually needed it. Everything he was—everything he had, everything he fought for—was gone. “I said, let me go.”

Alessi crowed. “You actually did it! It’s gone!” She clapped a hand to Isaac’s shoulder. “If you can destroy the Aberforth Gift now, can you imagine what you could do with a few more blood bags? What other secrets of Blood Working we can unlock?”

Isaac turned away, wiping at the blood on his lips, but Samuel spat, “What is she talking about?”

It didn’t have the power of a command. He wasn’t forced to speak. But Isaac closed his eyes and let the truth fall anyway. “The murders weren’t just about the trafficking. I mean, they were, but we couldn’t let such an opportunity go to waste. There are things you still don’t know about the Eternal King, Samuel. He’s too powerful to be taken down by conventional methods. We needed more power to match his centuries of knowledge, all the power he has consumed year after year. So, yes, we killed to stop the trafficking, to make a point to the King. But we also used those deaths to ensure that we can actually take him down.”

Samuel couldn’t bear looking at Isaac—not after that. “So you are a monster after all.”

“But I kept my promise!” Isaac whirled back on Samuel, grasping his hand. “I took this curse from you—the King would never have let you do it. He would have turned you into a weapon, forced you to do unspeakable things. But now it is gone! The Aberforth Gift is ended!”

Still staring straight up, Samuel whispered, “So instead you do unspeakable things yourself, feeding on the blood of others like they are nothing more than a tool, and then wonder why I am not pleased to hear it?”

“They were murderers,” Isaac snapped, a raw desperation in his eyes that Samuel could hardly bear to see. “Murderers and slavers! Do you know how many Unblooded they sent to their deaths for just a bit of money? If it gave me the power to help you, isn’t that worth the price?”

“That doesn’t matter.” Samuel pulled at his restraints, a snarl on his lips. “That does not justify it! This kind of Blood Working is still an atrocity!”

Alessi laughed, the sound harsh and cutting to his ears. “I told you he wouldn’t change his mind.” Her dagger was in her hand, and that cruel smile was back on her face. “I guess we’ll have to kill him after all.”

Isaac whirled on her, but before he could say anything, the walls shook. A boom echoed through the room as the wards started to flicker violently against the door, sparks flying off it in a blinding, brilliant spray.

Chapter Forty-Four

Shan

Shan was furious. She didn’t know what was happening to Samuel, but she felt the pain and terror that echoed down the bridge, its strength and potency terrifying. The thread that tied them together had grown stronger and brighter with each step she took, to the point where it nearly overwhelmed her. Though she had run across the rooftops of Dameral as fast as her magically enhanced body could, she feared she was too late.

She stumbled down the stairs, rushing to the basement door in the shadows between the buildings, the bowels of an old boarding house, forgotten and empty of life. Another casualty of Aeravin, left to rot in silence.

Still, the echoes of whatever had been done to Samuel slid across her nerves, leaving her shaky and unbalanced, and she almost ran into the ward that blocked her from him, a shimmering, barely visible mist in front of a ramshackle door. She recognized the ward immediately, tasting the magic in the air—the smoky, spicy scent that was quintessentially Isaac. And Samuel was just past it—she could feel it in her bones.

They both were, but first she needed to get through this ward.

She didn’t have time to do it safely or carefully, not with Samuel still hurting. Biting her lip hard enough to draw blood, Shan plunged both of her hands into the ward, a scream tearing from her throat as it seared her. She was strong enough that it wasn’t able to outright reject her, though it tried, so she reached forward to wrap her hands around the carefully constructed threads of power and pulled. They fought her, but she poured every ounce of strength that she had into it, tangling her fingers in the weave, and shredded it like lace.

Cracks started to shatter around her, the wards flashing brighter and brighter as she dragged her hands from edge to edge, rending its bind and sending the ward shattering to the ground like a pane of glass.

The resulting explosion of magic ricocheted back and forth, turning the simple wooden door to ash and shaking the very ground. Shan slumped to one knee from the force of it, her hands left as raw, flayed pieces of bloody meat.

Just beyond she saw Isaac and Alessi staring at her like she was some kind of god, their jaws hanging open as they stood in front of a ruined, broken Samuel, who was strapped to a table. She spared him a quick look, taking in the darkened veins that stood out, blackened and burned, against his pale skin.

Swaying, she pushed herself to her feet, pressing a ruined hand to her lips. The pain was beyond comprehension, but she needed the blood. She needed the strength. She licked the blood from her wounds as she forced the skin to start healing over, Isaac flinching from the very sight of it.

“How did you find us?” Alessi hissed, twin daggers in her hands. They were brutal and jagged—designed to tear and hurt.

Shan pulled back her lips in a snarl. “So, you’re part of this, then?”

“Surprise,” Alessi said, moving forward with a deadly speed. She closed the distance between them in a heartbeat and Shan barely managed to duck. Her hands were still healing over, her claws ruined and shattered shells.

Alessi pressed forward, giving her no quarter as she swung her daggers, Shan desperately dodging and ducking in the tight space. Shan fell to one knee, then swept out with a spinning kick as she tried to knock Alessi off her feet, desperate to buy time for her hands to heal enough to hold a weapon.

Jumping back, Alessi hopped over her kick, and Shan surged to her feet, abandoning all pretense of finesse. She drove her shoulder into Alessi’s side, sending her sprawling onto the floor and sliding hard into the metal table where Samuel was still bound. Alessi groaned but quickly scrambled to her feet, holding her knives out in a defensive position.

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