Page 21 of The Horde King of Shadow

Sarkin grinned, and the sight was so startling that I nearly gaped. “Tell me that you were,aralye. I would love to hear that.”

His mockery was plain.

“You believe me so easily? I’m a stranger to you! You were at our gates and demanding the one source of power we had left to protect ourselves from things likeyou. Our last heartstone. I would have said anything to make you leave.”

“Ah, but you said thewrongthing, Klara of Rath Serok and Rath Drokka,” he said. “And now you’re here. Undermycontrol. I know you weren’t lying.”

“How?”

“Because of that scar on your face,” he replied simply, gesturing toward it, eyes fastening on it.

“And what would that prove?” I asked quietly, my heart leaping in my chest. Even though the burn of despair and disappointment nearly seared me from the inside out, there were other reasons why I’d agreed to come with him. For answers. Finally.

I merely thought it ironic that he was intending to use me for heartstones…just like the priestesses had wanted, just what my mother had tried so hard to shield me from for the entirety of my life.

“It proves that you possess Elthikan power,” he told me. “It proves that you can cross realities in dreams, an ability the Karag have long had.”

“If that’s true, then you don’t need me,” I pointed out. He wasn’t telling me something. “One of your own could find the forest.”

He glanced down briefly at the glowing stone between us.

“Elthikan power is unpredictable. It manifests in different ways,” he replied simply. “It’s been a long time since we’ve heard of one with your ability. And I am not foolish enough to ignore a gift that has landed right at my feet.”

“So you took me,” I finished. “To use my ability to find you more heartstones.”

“Precisely.”

“Then why threaten to make me your wife? That’s entirely unnecessary.”

“Threaten?” he repeated. Sarkin’s brow dropped, his expression amused yet foreboding. “You don’t know the Karag at all. But you will.”

The warning in his voice nearly made me shiver.

“Get some sleep,” he ordered, gesturing to the fur roll as he stood, just as I heard a rumble of thunder in the distance. “Let’s see what you dream of tonight,wife.”

“Where will you sleep?” I asked. Even I could hear the trepidation in my voice.

“Worried?” he asked, the question sounding clipped.

“I don’t trust you.”

He smirked. “Good,” he said. “But luckily for your sake, you’re one of the last things I’d want to fuck right now.”

My spine stiffened, a harsh exhale escaping me at the crassness and ugliness of the words. No one had ever spoken to me like that. It was like getting dumped over the head with a bucket of ice water.

“Get some sleep while you can, princess. We leave as soon as the storm ends,” he said, snatching up the empty water skin next to me. I watched as he prowled off into the darkness of the forest, no doubt to search for a water source.

He really had no fear that I would try to leave.

And unfortunately,I thought as I slid into the fur roll, wincing at my aching muscles and the burning between my thighs,I’m in no position to even try.

Chapter 9

KLARA

I hadn’t quite known what to expect when I’d heard Sarkin mention “the citadel.” But we’d been up before dawn, the storm breaking in the night. And just as the sunrise peeked out over the horizon, we flew over a deep mountain valley, a twinkling river winding its way at the very base.

At the very end of the valley was a tall, jagged mountain though I could see decorative markings etched into its face even from a great distance. Reliefs carved into the rock of Elthika, their tails curving around the mountain like an embrace.

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