Page 148 of An Empress of Fire & Steel

The pack could sniff out a scent even if it had passed through these parts days ago.

Something wasn’t right.

“The wards wouldn’t take away their scent, would they?” Kellen asked.

Torin turned after scanning the trees below. They looked like small weeds in the ground. “Not normally. And even if they portalled out of the north, they would leave their smell behind,” he answered his younger brother as a gust of icy wind stabbed at him. He looked at Artem. “Who told you there was a small army of demons? Who did the order come from to go out and hunt them?”

“Well, Magin found me…eh…in my room.” He ran a hand over his short hair that almost looked brown under the light. “And then we immediately came for you.”

Gideon added, as his breath swirled like smoke into the night, “We were still in the ballroom when it was announced, and I instantly took Sybil back to her protected chamber.”

“Announced by whom?” Torin could feel the niggling sensation increase in his heart as the heat of suspicion fought out the cold.

“The Supreme guards,” Marcus answered.

Torin placed his hands on his hips and looked out into the darkness. The moon had finally pushed her way through the snow clouds and was shining like an oil lamp in the sky, sending beams of moonlight onto the faces of his brothers.

“And where did she tell the elite to go?” Torin asked.

“Back to their rooms, and she would call them once we had given her the all clear,” Marcus responded.

Something wasn’t right, and Torin knew it. “And the fae?”

“There were only a few fae court officiants present. She asked them to guard her vault in case the demons entered the palace. She also scattered some of them outside the doors of the elite.” Artem confirmed.

Torin inhaled.

It was strange, the Supreme’s presence hadn’t really been seen at the ball. She had made no glamorous, extravagant entry at the beginning of the night. She normally loved to indulge in such extravaganzas and being the focal point of the attention and admiration of all. She loved being the centre of the magic energy, showing off tricks and spells to anyone who would watch. But all of a sudden, after a scarce presence, she could be there to make an important announcement to control every other faction?

Come to think of it, she has been extremely quiet for days, not even attending dinners, and she had never made an appearance at the Uplift either.

Maybe she was preserving her energy—

“Fuck,” the word hissed out like hot smoke, his mind charged with a new revelation.

His chest began to rise and fall like he had been in a battle for hours.

“What is it, brother?” Gideon asked.

“Fuck!” Torin roared again out into the kingdom below. Birds stirred from their slumber in the trees as his profanity reached them. All the men flinched. Marcus unsheathed his small sword.

Torin turned frantically to face his small cluster. “I can’t believe I didn’t see it. I can’t believe I didn’t put it together! It was sitting under my fucking feet this entire time. I was always considering a different faction, when—”

He began running, hurling his body up the mountain at a pace that would match a fierce mountain lion.

He could hear his clan on the back of his heels, but it was Artem who spoke first. “Blacksteel,” he yelled. “What the fuck? You need to tell us what is going on, you’re not making any sense. You can’t curse a few times and expect us to follow your train of thought.”

He halted, his feet slipping on the rocky terrain. He grabbed a rock above him to steady himself. Torin had always thought the monsters that lay on the outside of the palace, waiting for its wards to break, would be Emara’s threat. In reality, it was the monster who owned the fucking palace instead.

He caught his balance and centred himself, looking down at his brethren. “It’s the Supreme.”

“What?” Gideon’s face pulled into a contorted version of itself.

“It’s the Supreme,” he repeated. “The one who has been behind the killings.” Torin felt the anger build in his blood. “She’s the one who was behind the Uplift attacks.”

“How can that be?” Marcus asked through ragged breaths, his face paling. “They were her people, her girls—”

“Because she orchestrated the whole thing.” Torin turned again after hoisting himself up a large rock and scaling another. “I am sure of it.” He gripped another rock, pulling himself up. “She might be working for the Dark God. She is the one behind the attacks. Taymir spoke of immorality, and who better to want immorality than a wilting Supreme?”

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