Page 66 of Of Nine So Bold

This was the Voidborn’s trickery.

But they wouldn’t win.

“I will see the so-called lords now,” I snapped at him over my shoulder. “But be certain my instructions are followed to the letter by the kitchen staff.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.” Harran bolted for the servants’ stairway as fast as his old legs could carry him.

“You should be embracing my power.”

I froze at the sound of Alaric’s voice again. My eyes darted around, landing at last on the blade.

The grotesque face on the hilt curved its gaping mouth into a devilish grin.

Rage surged within me. “Get out,” I snapped at the Voidborn. “Now!”

The creatures paused, glancing at one another questioningly rather than obeying.

A twist of my fingers had them screaming as they died.

“Or should I say,” Alaric commented as their cries faded, “embracingmoreof it.”

I looked down at the sword again. “What is this? Did you hide in the blade?”

Alaric chuckled. Between one eye blink and the next, the face on the hilt snapped back to its ordinary appearance.

But the mirror shards were gray again.

“Do you remember, pet?” he mused. “How our power twisted and formed you into this? Why do you hide from it now?”

“I hide fromnothing,” I snarled.

His chuckle made me stalk back toward the mirror. In the shards, the gray fog gave way to his face. He didn’t look the same as when I killed him. No, he looked like when I first met him after escaping the empty realms. His skin was once again made of silver scales. His face was blunt like an eel’s, with only slits for his nostrils.

“Once upon a time, you were unafraid of us.”

“I amnotafraid!”

He grinned, his mouth full of metallic fangs. “Prove it. Remember how you reached across the miles without ever leaving this room. Remember how you bent the world based on your will alone.”

My teeth ground. “I still do.”

“Really? A few apples. A few trees.” He scoffed. “You’ve barely scratched the surface of what youcoulddo.”

An angry sound escaped me. Damn these Voidborn for trying to toy with me. How they’d continued their ruse when none of them even remained in this room, I wasn’t certain. But Iwould cease bothering with it immediately, and I sure as allhellwouldn’t let them succeed in thwarting me.

Alaric’s inhuman face turned taunting. “Or admit you are going mad, not from power but from fear.”

My fingers curled into a fist. I shouldn’t respond to him. This was merely a trick.

“Iknowyou’re afraid, pet.”

To hell with it. “I fear nothing.”

He merely regarded me in mocking silence.

My fists shook. They thought me afraid and weak, these Voidborn fools who taunted me with false visions? They thought my power was a joke?

I’d show them.

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