Page 51 of Scourged

Ciana hesitated before parting her lips. “If you hurt her …”

“You’ll chop my balls off?” Quentin grinned at her again. “Trust me; I know. Especially once Mariah is back.”

The mention of their queen’s name dropped the temperature in the hallway by at least ten degrees. As if on cue, theallumesconces on the walls flickered. Ciana swallowed, pushing her steps faster.

“Besides,” Quentin said, “it’s nothing. I’m just teasing her. She’s tougher than she looks.”

“Yes,” Ciana said, just before they caught up to Delaynie. “Yes, she is.”

They burstthrough the gold and white doors into the cavernous, glass-ceilinged throne room.

Mariah’s Armature were gathered before the great golden throne, brilliant pillars oflunestairgleaming with mocking brightness. They turned as one to face Ciana, Delaynie, and Quentin as they rushed across the marble floor. Rylla, in her human form, peeled out of the shadows, clasping her hands.

“What’s happened?” Ciana twisted her hands behind her back. A familiar, nervous tick. “Is there someone …”

Another figure stepped out of the shadows, Kiira beside her. It was a young woman—a stranger—her pale strawberry blonde hair piled piously atop her head. But it wasn’t anything about her hair or her skin that had Ciana tensing, had her vision flooding with anger, had something wild and strange racing through her.

It was the pale gold robes the girl wore. The robes of a priestess of Qhohena.

“What thefuckis she doing here.” Ciana’s voice was cold as ice, the ends of her blonde curls barely shifting on a phantom wind.

“Ciana,” a low, male voice said from beside her.

Ciana snapped her attention to Sebastian, his hazel eyes guarded.

The prior night, when he’d caught her walking in the stables … she didn’t think she’d ever seen him that angry. Sebastian did not yell, but his face had taken on a foreign, bitter coldness as he’d quietly asked her where she’d gone.

He’d warmed, just a touch, when she told him about the rumors from Beva, but had still stormed away with a harsh set to his jaw. She hadn’t seen him since.

Until now.

He swallowed. “Just … listen to her. Please.”

“Justlisten to her?” Ciana took a step closer to him, incredulity dripping from her tongue, amber eyes scorching. “She’s apriestess. A follower of that bitch, Ksee, who we all know is not innocent in whatever thefuckhappened here after the Solstice.” She whirled to the priestess, fury blazing through her veins, gnashing its teeth like a monstrous maelstrom.

“Ksee is the reason theallumeis failing, isn’t she?” Ciana stormed closer, Rylla watching her with a curious expression. “You priestesses are behindallof this. Everything.”

The girl blanched, taking a step back. “I don’t—I didn’t?—”

Kiira stepped in front of the priestess, forcing Ciana back with a jump of surprise. “Let the girl speak before you pass your judgments. We know you will want to hear what she has to say.” Kiira glanced over Ciana’s shoulder at the rest of Mariah’s court. “We know all of you will want to hear what she has to say.”

Ciana closed her eyes, forcing a shaky inhale. Tremors wracked her body—frustration at Sebastian, fury at the priestess,fear for her queen, all blending to form a terrifyingly potent cocktail.

When she finally opened them, she was surprised to find that the priestess had peeked around Kiira, watching Ciana with a similarly curious expression.

Ciana’s leash on her self-control pulled taut, just before a hesitant hand met her shoulder. She snapped her gaze to Sebastian, still wearing that guarded expression, but now a bit more pleading.

“You went into the city to find Mariah,” he whispered, just for her. “And I fucking hate that you did that, but … what if this is what we’ve been waiting for? What if this is the information we need?”

Ciana slowly looked back at the priestess. “What did you do with my queen?”

The priestess quaked like a leaf, skin paling even further. “I didn’t …I didn’t do anything. But I might know who did.”

That strange, foreign feeling filled Ciana at the priestess’s words.Hope.

Ciana took a step back to give the priestess space, brushing Sebastian’s arm. He moved with her, standing beside her in her retreat. She refused to look at him—she was still furious—but somewhere, buried deep down, she was grateful he was there.

He was right. What if thiswaswhat they’d been looking for? Endless weeks of fighting pirates whose only interest was to keep them occupied, to keep them from finding their queen, and with some twist of luck an answer might have stumbled onto their doorstep.

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