Page 46 of Tales of a Deadly Devotion
She was alive when you burnt her, little troll.I winced at the memory of those words, how tightly they seemed to constrict my throat.
‘Kat,’ Emrys’s cool hands cupped my face, making me look at him. At the darkness in his eyes. Endless. How it curved along his jaw, the sensation of his magic hesitantly brushingmy forearms, trying to seek the source of the pain. But it was burrowed too deeply inside of me. Ash still clung to his dark hair. Smeared on his cheek and neck along with dark demonic blood. The blood of what those lords had become.
Monsters hiding in mortal flesh.
‘Well. Council meetings appear to have become more eventful.’ Thean’s voice was sharp with accusation as the voyav lounged in the study doorway, hands pushed deep into their pockets. ‘You can hear the Council warning bells all the way to the west hills. What on earth is going on?’
‘They’re dead.’ Gideon tore off his ruined jacket, tossing it carelessly against the sideboard. ‘Montagor made his move.’
‘What?’ Thean’s relaxed demeanour quickly forgotten as they moved further into the room. ‘Tell meexactlywhat happened.’
‘So you can decide to be useful,parasite?’ Gideon bit out, such malice in his voice I flinched.
‘The Council members became what they sold their souls to. Montagor also summonedScavengers.’ There was a harsh reluctance to Emrys’s words, a tension rippling around him. As if something else could claw its way out from beneath his skin, causing the fire to flicker wildly.
‘The Council chambers are miles from the nearest seal or even breach—’ Thean’s words were calm and assertive with fact but Emrys was already shaking his head.
‘Montagor has arelic, and now no laws of summoning can stop him,’ he interrupted, a dark warning in his words that let a chill slip over my skin.
A relic.
The dark held weapons of their own. Weapons even the old Kysillian’s flame was no match for.The warning sang though my mind, unable to remember who had spoken it to me. Montagor had used something demonic to tear that chamberapart. Something so ancient the tales had forgotten it existed. To form a perfect deadly trap.
A sinking feeling consumed the centre of my chest, as if a soft bank of earth was slipping away from a cliffside within me. All these things and none of them made sense.
This darkness wasn’t just back, it had never left.
‘What’s hap—’ a familiar voice began before it stopped.
Alma.
I hadn’t realised until that moment that my heart hadn’t finished breaking. Until I saw her in the doorway, the concern in her deep green eyes and the worry at her brow.
‘Kat.’ She crossed the room to me in an instant. ‘I bloody told you—.’
The barest brush of her fingers against my torn dress sleeve, but I recoiled like a wild thing. Unable to bare it.
I stumbled back against the shelves. The books rattled but the house settled them quickly, creaking with worry. Either for the state of me, or the sudden panic that seemed to be encasing my heart.
‘I’m fine.’ I tried to push my arms behind my back, only for the pain to stop me. For it to shorten my breath.
‘Kat.’ Emrys came closer at the same moment Alma did.
‘You’re bleeding,’ she replied, a sternness coming into her words as she tried to reach for me again. To manage me as she had before. Only I wasn’t the Kat of before and I was fearful I never would be again.
She was alive when you burnt her, little troll.That creature’s words seared through my mind, the flash of Master Hale’s face covered in blood.
Murderer.
‘I’m fine!’ I sneered, baring my teeth as I gripped one of my injured wrists. Feeling the wetness of my blood againstmy palm as it seeped through Gideon’s makeshift bandage. Feeling the stinging rush of magic burning in my veins.
The fire roared in the hearth, almost singeing the books that rested on the mantel.
That vicious pain in my neck came back, making me grip it, bowing me forward.
‘I see things aren’t going to plan, dear Emrys,’ Thean drawled with almost boredom.
‘You knew he was close to finding a relic.’ Emrys’s voice was steel, eyes darker than the night. ‘And your master knew it too.’
