Page 280 of Born of Blood and Ash

Long, blond strands danced in the wind, tangling with LadyKala’s brown hair. My chest compressed. A citrine hairpin glittered in thesunlight. A pretty, once buttery-yellow gown now glistened with streaks of red,but I heard her voice as if her lips moved.

I would like that…

I would like that very much.

A spasm jerked me forward onto my hands. There would be nofuture meetings. No desperately needed conversations. No attempts to try tounderstand each other. To forgive. No moving forward. Allowing time to tell newstories. No—

I rocked forward, lowering my head and squeezing my eyesshut. It did nothing to stop the rush of raw emotion. My cheeks dampened. Isucked in a metallic-coated breath, opening my eyes. A teardrop fell from mycheek and splattered off my hand.

Red.

It was red.

Another fell. Then another. The blood tears were no longercoming from me but from above.

I lurched to my feet, mouth and throat dry. I stumbled overa prone guard’s legs—a Royal Guard. And there were more. They’d died quickly,their necks broken, as had those I’d seen in the city.

Eather throbbed and pressed against my flesh. I searchedfaces through the crimson-tinted rain, feeling pieces of me break away witheach sight of mouths stretched wide in silent screams. Beige and brown faces.Pale and pink ones. Olive-toned and—

My throat constricted. My steps faltered, and I fell to myknees once more. My vision went black and then came back as I stared up at ajaw that was no longer stubborn. An awareness pressed upon me, but more piecesof me broke away when I saw none of the compassion and cleverness in herbeautiful, once-warm brown eyes. I shook when I saw the pinstriped waistcoat,now black-and-red instead of black-and-white.

Beside my sister was her wife, her head turned slightly toEzra as if Marisol had turned to see her love in the very last moments of herlife.

They’d died side by side. Together. And I hadn’t been herethis time for Marisol. I hadn’t been here for any of them.

Everyone at Wayfair was dead.

All of them.

And more than half the city now rotted in the rapidlyforming red puddles. I couldn’t comprehend the senselessness. Never in mydarkest nightmares could I have imagined this kind of horror. This kind of—

Movement from the castle caught my attention. Too-dark andthick shadows filled doorways and moved in the breezeways. They were no longerseeking to hide.

They were how so many had been killed so quickly. Becausewhat I saw weren’t shadows. They were Cimmerian—senturionwarriors that could pull from the darkest hours of night to cloak theiractions. And they would’ve done just that, sweeping through the city like aplague of nightmares, leaving indiscriminate ruin and despair in their wake.Most had served Hanan but defected once Bele Ascended.

I knew exactly where they had gone.

The air around me charged, reacting to the energy sparkingfrom my pores. A bolt of lightning struck the coast of Carsodonia.The night deepened, and my attention shifted to my kind, smart sister.At the Queen and Consort Lasania had needed. And thenI thought about what Callum had said. How he’d wanted to visit with my motherone last time.

He’d known.

I’d told them all they had to do was call my name. Whydidn’t Ezra do that?

Electricity rolled down my splayed fingers as I stared atthe loss of hope. Of a future. Eather seeped from my fingertips. I couldn’tbreathe, but that was okay. Grief gave way to fury.

The distant howls of the living faded, and awareness thuddedin a hollow echo through me. The storm inside me spilled into the realm. Wispsof eather crackled around my arms.

“Kolis has come to a decision regarding the deal youoffered. You now have his answer.”

Muscles locked all along my spine. My heart stopped. My mindclicked off. Wind heavy with salt and blood whipped through the courtyard,stirring the stained silk gowns and mauve banners. Thick, dark clouds rolledin, blotting out the moonlight. I forced my stare from the faces of the deadand looked over my shoulder at Kyn.

Our eyes locked across the field of dented armor, bentshields, and still-sheathed swords. He’d finally gotten what he’d wanted, eventhough this wasn’t the Shadowlands.

Vengeance had been unleashed.

And it would continue.

“He apologizes for not waiting until the eiriniended but he has grown rather impatient.” Kyn’s bronze helmet dulled underneaththe clouds the starlight couldn’t penetrate. A long spear was embedded in theground beside him, its blade a milky white. “What did you think would happen?That he would accept your deal? That you would somehow rule? Win? You cannotwin against Death. He is inevitable.” Through the drenching blood rain, Kyn’slips formed a cruel smirk as he chuckled. “Life is not.”

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