Page 61 of An Empress of Air & Chaos

A terrible coldness spread a shiver over her skin.

“They want to end this world.” Gideon looked at her, his deep green eyes intense. “To create a new one, where the creatures of the underworld roam free, out of their cage without suffering the consequences. That is what the King of the underworld wants most. However, there is a tale, dating back a century or two, that Veles doesn’t rule the underworld anymore. Folklore states that there was an uprising and he was too weak to defeat one of his most powerful knights. But that’s probably just a bad example of demon mythology.”

Emara ran a hand up and down her arm to remove the evidence of her fear as she nodded.

“Are you cold?” Gideon noticed. “Your body temperature must be coming back down from the training.” He took his black training shirt that had been on the floor all morning and handed it to her. “Here, put this over you until training commences. I have a briefing in fifteen minutes with my father, but I will see you at breakfast.”

He offered her a smile before leaving the sparring room. She pulled the heavy, black material over her head and tugged it down over her legs. The material was soft, warming her fear-pimpled skin.

“Ponytail,” Torin’s voice commanded the room. And her attention. She turned to see him walking towards her, his chin raised in the air. “Give us a minute, Kellen.”

Kellen nodded, grabbed his fighting blade, and ducked out of the room.

Torin Blacksteel stood in front of her with two massive swords strapped across his back, making him look absolutely murderous. As if his face didn’t already have that effect. And his massive body, ripped with muscle after muscle tumbling down his torso, showing how destructive he could be…

“What?” Emara gulped, shaking her lingering thoughts of his ripped torso from her mind.

“I was thinking—” Torin started to speak, but she couldn’t help but cut him off.

“You think?” Her arms now folded just under her chest as she faked surprise in her tone. “Oh, wow. I didn’t realise the air in your head allowed space for you to actually process thoughts.”

“Cute!” he dismissed. “Anyway, before you take another verbal stab at my heart”—he pouted—“I wanted to talk to you about last night.” His eyes darkened, and all wit was gone from his face. His jawline moved as he turned his head to the side, making it look sharper and more prominent.

“I don’t want to talk about last night.” She looked at the floor.

She did want to talk about it—with anyone who would listen. But not Torin. She didn’t want anything else to be awkward between them.

“Well, that’s good because I was going to do the talking,” Torin moved closer with one step, “That stone, you just so happen to have, is an ancient relic from the Gods.” His tongue touched the tip of his teeth. “The stone has been lost for Millennia; The ancestors believed it to be missing. Gone.” His face was serious.

“Listen, I have no idea why or when it came into my possession. I just found it in my box, okay?” Emara lifted her gaze. “I clearly didn’t think it would be a big deal when I took it to the markets. Did I think it was magical? Yes. But nothing that would cause a scene.”

“Well, that pretty, little stone is a massive deal, Emara,” he argued. “It’s the Resurrection Stone. And here you are, just carrying it around with you like it’s a coin in your back pocket. Do you have any idea how much this stone is worth? You couldn’t put a price on it.”

“Yeah, well that means nothing to me.” She hissed through her teeth. “All I know is that my grandmother or mother was trying to keep it hidden or something. I don’t know why it was concealed in my box. Neither of them ever spoke of it.”

Torin stepped closer. He bowed his head down. “I thought I knew what you were before last night, and I can now relish in the fact that I was correct in my assumptions. But we don’t want everyone else to know.” The comment Torin made threw her off guard, draining the colour from her cheeks. “Due to last night’s little escapade to the Spirit Witch, I can piece it all together now. You come from a witching bloodline—and not just any witching bloodline, but an extremely powerful one, too.” A smile tugged on Torin’s lips. “I told you we all had secrets.”

“How did you know?” Her eyes studied his face and she tried to stop her body from shaking “Before last night?”

His icy blue eyes stared back at her with an intensity that turned her veins to frost. His dark hair lay across his face from the workout.

His annoyingly perfect hair.

“Your eyes,” was all he said, keeping his face indecipherable. “I knew because of your eyes.”

Her heart quickened.

He put one hand against the wall. Leaning in, he said, “Let’s keep the stone and who you are a secret. We don’t need anyone else knowing about it. And especially not my father. And that goes for lover boy, too. Gideon tells my father everything.”

Why didn’t he want his father to know?

Her face must have given away her confusion because he added, “It could put you in danger.”

Danger?

“I haven’t told anyone about what happened last night. Not even Cally.” Emara’s voice shook. A part of her had wanted to tell Cally about who she really was the minute she had found out, but of course that would lead to explaining about the stone. Of course she wanted to tell her, they never kept secrets from each other, but she wasn’t ready to speak about it. Maybe because part of her thought that speaking it out aloud meant that it was real and maybe she wasn’t ready to accept that. Maybe she wasn’t ready to accept the truth at all.

“You having the stone puts you in a compromising position. You have no idea who would want it or what they would do to get it.”

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