Page 40 of Tales of a Deadly Devotion
Liar.
‘There were complaints—’ That smoke continued to churn, dark as blood, and something inside me settled. A sharp pain that had been a discomfort for too long. Knowing how evil they were but refusing to let myself accept it. Refusing to see everything because surviving was more important.
‘You have nothing to ask me.’ I pushed away from them, grateful my strength didn’t falter. ‘No rights under that treaty. Not when you broke it yourself over twelve years ago.’
‘This hearing is not—’
‘Protection for the beings of the land. Both own blood and magical. United in desire for peace.Your oath.’ My words seared through the silence, through the oppressive chill of Emrys’s magic.
They’d killed us for nothing all this time.
I let them see the vengeance burning in my eyes, feel the heat of my magic roiling with sadness and fury. Watching Montagor give the barest flinch as if he remembered the potency of my flame upon his skin.
‘There is no treaty to keep. There never was. So how can any fey breach it?’ I’d signed a lie. Been bound by a falsehood – and perhaps that was the most painful part of all of this. How easily I’d devoured those lies, hungry for anything to ease the agony of my own grief.
My gaze moved to Master Hale, saw the paleness to his features. The depth of hurt in his eyes and that was when the agony began. As I looked at the orb before him, stained with that bloody darkness like all the others.
He’d known too.
He’d known and done nothing. Nobody had come. They’d left us there and I wouldn’t torment myself with it any longer.
Murderer.Yes, I was. And I’d do it again.
‘How easily you’ve spoiled their fun, Woodrow,’ came the bored voice of Montagor, only … he was still smiling.
It was then the pain came, straight in the centre of my chest. Searing hot, stealing my breath. I reached into the collar of my dress, tugging the chain of my wishing stone so it came tumbling out. Blinding light emitting from it, stinging my eyes. My chest unbearably tight, as if my heart was trying to crawl up my throat.
Run. That mocking voice came again. A warning that came too late as that odd sensation consumed me again. Too cold, too sudden. All the air being pulled from the room in a moment.
Intense agony bit into my neck, a helpless cry left my lips as I gripped my throat, as my knees made brutal impact with the chamber floor.
‘Kat!’ Sharp with warning, raw as if it hurt to even speak my name.
I turned my head, Emrys already moving towards me, the darkness spreading across his skin.
But I didn’t get a chance to see his eyes before the room exploded in fire.
Chapter Thirteen
Kat
There was a ringing in my ears, a dryness on my tongue that threatened to choke me. My name came muffled through a horrid rumbling sound. Too close. Too loud in the darkness. A flickering of bright white light before me, stinging my eyes as I tried to open them.
Slowly, the wishing stone came into focus, blinking wildly like the irritated flutter of a dust sprite’s wing.
Danger.
I reached for it with aching fingers, palm meeting nothing but shards of stone, blood coating my fingers as I pushed myself to my elbows, sharp rubble digging ruthlessly into my forearms. I coughed again, blinking the burning smoke from my eyes.
There was a horrid, muffled wailing, turning me towards another wall of acrid smoke only to realise it was the warning bells echoing through the gloom. The world was upside down, the room too hot and the air too thick. Dark smoke curled before me, flashes of bright orange and red concealed within it.
The stench of burning flesh cloying.
Murderer.No. My magic was silent. I looked at my hands, no illumination from a summoning in my veins. No bite of my flame. This wasn’t me. Couldn’t be me.
It was something else.
Then I remembered Montagor’s smile. His taunt. The agony of the warning from the wishing stone. He’d done this.
