Page 79 of Untamed

“Give me your wrist.” His tone commanded with such authority, but my mind combatted my natural inclination to obey. “I’m a whyzer and can read giftings.”

Curiosity sparked within me, but this man had abducted Jaime and me, beat Jaime, and started a war with Giddel. He planned to have Beatriz and Cosme killed.

“Put your arm on the table. I can answer questions about your mother. Where she came from. Why she worked for me. What type of person she was. I doubt Cottia has divulged much information. It’s not her style.”

I shook my head viciously. The queen wanted this man dead for a reason and even trained me to do away with him. The poison stitched into my bodice seemed to pulse from its hidden spot, which I knew was ridiculous. Yet the phantom sensation reminded me that my one job was to get him to drink the death serum.

“Bring Jaime up,” the whyzer commanded his ruffians.

“No.” With hesitation, I set my forearm on the table. “I want to know everything.”

A wicked grin curled the corners of his mustache, and he wrapped his bony fingers around my wrist. His touch was cold. Though a warm glow filled the space between my skin and his, he seeped ice and malice and a strange sensation that reached to my bones.

“So where did she come from? How did you meet her? Why would she work for you?” The eagerness in my voice made me sound desperate, but I couldn’t help myself. “How did you know about me?”

His gaze shifted from my arm to my eyes. “Your mother begged me to get rid of you.” He had to have been joking, but he kept a serious look that unraveled my insides.

“You lie.” My words squeaked.

“I do not. Your mother was desperate for help, but I refused to assist a traitor.” He let his cold grip fall from my arm and lifted his walking stick. The top lit like coal in a flame, and he chanted several foreign phrases under his breath.

A breeze swirled through the room, dimming the two lamps and sending a shiver so deep it might have frozen my blood through and through. “What are you doing?”

“Marking you.”

I jumped out of my seat and fled several paces. Did he mean the type of mark he left on Queen Cottia? It was the reason she had stayed in Giddel. She said he used to control her with the binding.

Oh, Ancient One, cool his ember, make it so he can’t touch me.

The tip of the whyzer’s staff went out. He whispered to it again, but it did not come alive. “Laude, you are correct that you only have a flame. All I want is to bring to life the dormant gift in your blood. It won’t feel like anything but a touch on your skin. Do you not want to be powerful?”

His words woke something up inside me, a longing to be important.

“You are a queen by birth and the only one with a legitimate claim to the crown of Pedroz. You’ll never survive without a power to protect yourself.”

“I am no queen.” My arms wrapped around my body, the only form of protection I could muster.

“But you will be.” The soothing tone to his voice could enchant. “That’s why I saved you from the Black Prince. His job is to put to death the old rulers.”

My very bones shook more than leaves trembling in a gale.

“You will be part of the rule to come. People will follow you because you carry the blood of the last of the great rulers, yet youare not one of them. I will make you great. You will not age or see an end to your rule. You will be a goddess, with all you’ve ever wanted at your fingertips.”

“That’s not what I want.” I bumped into the back wall, now several arm lengths away from the whyzer, yet still way too close. The power he spoke of sounded like the twisted power I’d read about in the Ancient Tome, the power that destroyed the people of old.

“Then what do you want? I can get it for you.”

My head shook on its own. I merely wanted a quiet life in the countryside with Jaime, where I could visit my friends in Giddel and Himzo. No luxury could replace a quiet life with those I loved.

Please stop him from marking me, Ancient One.

The fire on his staff went out completely. He flinched at the sight, and his face turned grave with deep wrinkles bracketing his mouth. “Then you will suffer the same fate as your friends in Giddel, but you won’t get a swift blade. You’ll drown in the Agata Sea with lungs full of sea water.”

He smacked my face with his staff and whistled.

Pain laced my cheek, and the telltale warmth of blood pooling throbbed along with every doubt he’d placed in my heart about my past and the fear for my short future.

Ears and the burly guard came into the room.

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