Page 93 of Of Nine So Bold

My eyes twitched over to the glass shards.

The dozens of images of his face all smiled. “You know what to do, pet.”

How dare he still call mepetwhen I’d burned him into non-existence? For that matter, how dare he taunt me like that, insinuating that I was turning my back on power?

And why was I even entertaining the fiction of this conversation? Alaric wasdead. He couldn’t?—

Hiss-clicking carried through my connection to the Voidborn throughout the castle.

My attention snapped to the door a moment before it opened. An orc stood there, taller than the doorway and very nearly wider than it too. He nodded his head to the left, the creature inside him making his eyes gleam with anticipation.

I drew myself up and strode away from the shattered mirror. To hell with that demented illusion.

But whathadhe meant, ”you know what to do”?

Shuddering, I silently ordered myself to ignore that too.

My throne room would have seemed silent to a human when I entered it, but I could hear the fluttering pulses of three prisoners currently on their knees between the Voidborn-possessed harpies. They wore the armor of my guards at the mine of Eliantra, but I was not fooled.

The Voidborn-possessed human standing calmly beside them had informed me of their plans long before Gwyneira and her pathetic allies had tried to take my mine by surprise.

It had only been a matter of leaving enough soldiers standing guard for them to buy into the ruse, and that foolish girl was mine.

I glanced at the Voidborn-possessed human as I took my seat upon the throne. He appeared perhaps twenty, maybe younger, with sun-darkened, calloused skin from a life of work outside. His eyes were currently dark brown, but I could still see the Voidborn within him radiating its displeasure at being confined by such alimitedhost.

Harpies, orcs, and others at least had claws or fangs or strength. They inspired fear and dread before they killed their enemies.

To the Voidborn, humans were incredibly…boring.

Smirking mildly at its displeasure, I turned my attention to the prisoners. Two of them appeared to be nothing more than farmers, their clothes beneath their patchwork Aneiran armor threadbare and stained by mud. Breathless shock still clung to their faces, most likely a byproduct of having been flown here by the harpies.

Humans were so silly about flight, craving it and yet being terrified when it occurred.

But it was the third who made me smile. Unlike the others, she wore her stolen armor with a familiarity that spoke to a military history. With her head unbowed and her jaw set, the dark-haired woman made the fact she was on her knees seema choice rather than a byproduct of force, and while her eyes tracked me, they showed only determination to die with honor rather than the slightest intent of giving me anything I might want.

Anticipation shivered through me. This one would be fun to break.

“I don’t suppose I need to tell you why you’ve been brought here,” I said to the trio. “One does not commit treason by accident, after all. So I’ll dispense with the formalities and offer you a choice.” I glanced to the side briefly as a Voidborn-possessed orc carried in a tray of apples. “Submit to me now by simply feasting upon the food I’ve provided you… or die.”

The two humans on either side of the woman trembled, their eyes flicking from the apples to the doors to me as if seeking another way out.

They knew what these were, then. That made this even more entertaining.

“Remember the forest,” the woman murmured to her people through gritted teeth.

The farmers tensed, swallowing down their nervousness but not moving to take any of the fruit I offered them.

“The gods will damn you as a traitor for this, Nerak,” the woman continued to the Voidborn-possessed human standing nearby. “Whatever they offered you to betray us, it will be nothing compared to the punishment you’ll find in the realms of hell.”

The Voidborn-possessed human smiled, his eyes lighting up with an orange-red glow. “Nerakhas been dead for days, bitch. And soon, you will be too.”

A small shudder went through the woman, her only reaction to the Voidborn glaring at her from the body of the young farmer.

“Enough.” I jerked my chin slightly at the Voidborn. “Find a new host.”

With a final smirk, the creature erupted from the boy’s body. In a twist of serpentine smoke, it sped from the room, seeking something more interesting in the darkened halls.

“What… what was…” one of the human prisoners gasped, staring after it.

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