Page 56 of A World of Ruins

‘Will save you?’ He chuckles. ‘Lorcan does not care for you any more. Not after I struck a deal with the Aerian leaders.’

My face must be priceless because it only makes Aurum’s smile grow.

‘Hira’s land and people go unharmed as long as she lets me get what I want.’

Me and Darius . . .

‘Hira would never do that,’ I whisper, shaking my head at the thought that Hira could betray us this way.

‘You are right,’ he says. ‘She wouldn’t. Which is why she is no longer alive.’

Ice sweeps through my veins as every ounce of air vanishes from my lungs.

She is no longer alive.

‘The other two warrior leaders, though, accepted the deal with no problem. Although did you know Hira was Lorcan’s real mother?’

Aurum’s filthy joy as he speaks numbs me. He won’t stop smiling as he talks, tells me the truth, and lets me in on a secret that must have broken Lorcan just as much as it did when Darius found out about Gus.

‘Shocking, isn’t it?’ His golden eyepatch snaps towards me, the other eye squinting with delight. ‘Whatever plagued her to fall for a mortal is beyond me, but oh, you should have seen the look on Lorcan’s face when he found out. I suppose he and Darius aren’t so different after all.’

‘What is wrong with you?’ I spit, anger simmering beneath the surface of my words. ‘You killed her, you—’ My rage spikes; I can’t do it any more. Strength takes hold of me as I push myself free from Ruvyn and launch myself across Aurum’s desk.

Aurum jumps from his chair as I try to reach for him, but Ruvyn’s hands wrap around my waist, turning me away before I can get him.

A mangled cry tears from my throat as I pull at Ruvyn’s hands, but he keeps me within his grip.

Aurum walks around his desk, grinning while watching me thrash in Ruvyn’s arms. He leans forward; our faces are so close that I could bite off his nose. ‘I would do it all over again just torelive how good it felt to see the life drain away from her useless body.’

Flames dance across his fingertips as he shows them off in front of me, and for a second, I stop fighting. I stop trying to free myself because I realise something that makes me laugh so much that I cannot breathe.

Aurum’s confusion only fuses my laughter. ‘What are you laughing about?’ he grits.

I watch his flames die out, and my amusement fades into a disdainful smile. ‘That even though you are a Rivernorth, you still feelthatthreatened by your nephew that you had to take his powers.’

He looks mad – so, so mad.

Good.

‘You want to know what I was once told?’ I chuckle, riling him up. ‘That Darius is the rightful king to Emberwell. Not Sarilyn, not you,him.’

He snaps, gripping my jaw between his hands and squeezing until I feel the bones crack. ‘Where are the Elemental Stones?’

I wince beneath his feral gaze, but I don’t want to give in. Iwon’tgive in. ‘Go on, do your worst.’ Heat flares from my nostrils. ‘I willnevertell you where the stones are, and I will never bow down to you.’

We stare at each other, and his jaw clenches the more I choose not to back down – the more I show that I am not afraid of him.

Right up until the doors to the study open and an Elf interrupts us.

‘Sorry—the-the Queen has asked for the prisoner’s presence.’

‘Sarilyn,’ Aurum corrects him, seething between his teeth all the while maintaining his gaze on me. He releases his forceful grip on my jaw, and I draw a deep breath, my fingersinstinctively massaging the soreness in my jawbone as Aurum swipes a hand over his face.

He doesn’t say anything as the Elf and Ruvyn take me away, and I stare at him, knowing that I got inside his head.

CHAPTERTWENTY-FIVE

Being bundled from one place to the next, bound again and helpless, isn’t how I imagined I would spend my time in this place.

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