Page 35 of Tales of a Deadly Devotion
The echo of the hunter’s footsteps matched my panicked heartbeat. Like a war drum.
The Council portal door was waiting, making me wonder how the hunters had managed to open it. From Emrys’s tense form, it was a shared thought. He’d pulled on his coat and buttoned up his shirt but the air of wildness still hung around him as we passed through the portal doorway. It littered my skin with the familiar sting of the strange magic but our steps didn’t falter as we moved through the curved hallways, the clicking of our boots against the sterile marble.
The Institute.
So much hatred lingered here. How they hated me for knowing too much. Ignoring that they’d locked me away for half my life with nothing else to do but learn.
Disregarded my voice and only made me strive to be louder so maybe they would listen.
Perhaps I was a monster, but I was what they made me.
I ignored the depictions of the past mages on the portrait-filled walls. Their white robes and golden spell books. Carried on past the depictions of the ancient beasts they slaughtered, listening to the whispered mutterings of the students who lingered. The mages finishing their classes paused at the sight of me and the maids scurried away as they always had.
I’d walked this hallway before, scared and burdened with guilt. Constantly glancing over my shoulder, waiting to disappear like all the others before me. Another victim to this world, a body for an unmarked pit, a lesson for other fey to learn.
I breathed in the harsh bitter saint smoke that lingered in the air after their morning prayers, letting it stoke the painful rage in my gut.
Lies.That voice hissed in the back of my mind. Just more lies.
A darkness crept into the side of my vision, a weakness crawling up my thighs, threatening to buckle my knees, butI kept my focus on the broad expanse of Emrys’s back as we reached the mage’s doors and the hunter turned on his heel to give orders.
‘You’ll give us a moment.’ Gideon smiled tightly, as he fixed the cuff of his pristine sleeve at my side. The hunter gave a moment’s pause before nodding to his men, then moving through the chamber doors with relaxed ease.
Gideon waited only a second for the door to close before he whirled on me, reaching into his coat pocket and pulling out a vial filled with the familiar iridescent liquid of a healing syrup.
‘Drink it before you collapse,’ he commanded, forcing it into my hand.
‘She’s just had one.’ Emrys interjected.
Gideon glowered at him. ‘Calm down. A second tonic clearly won’t maim her, and let’s remind ourselves she should still be in fucking bed.’
‘I’m feeling better,’ I countered, ignoring his disbelieving glance and the fact I sounded like a petulant child before I did as he said. Hating the numbness the syrup left on my tongue.
Gideon – satisfied I wasn’t in mortal peril due to my own foolishness – turned his annoyance on his brother, a gloved finger pointed in accusation.
‘Montagor is up to something.’ His words were quiet, not wasting a moment of breath.
‘We’ll worry about that later,’ Emrys sighed, running a hand through his hair, stormy grey eyes surveying me quickly for any harm. As if some great injury could have befallen me on the short walk here.
‘Later?’ Gideon snapped dubiously, claiming his brother’s attention once more. ‘I doubt they’ve ordered a summons to serve us tea and fucking scones,Emrys!’
‘I’m well aware of that,’ Emrys growled back as the shadows that lingered in the corridor lengthened in response to his dark anger. Gideon, however, was not deterred. This was a darkness he knew all too well. Understood better than me. How Emrys could walk the very fine line between Verr and lord. Blurring the two together seamlessly.
‘There is something you aren’t telling me, brother.’
Emrys’s jaw was tight with irritation, his eyes moving over his brother’s features. Trying to give himself time. Of course. He couldn’t lie.
‘Don’t play the fucking mute,Emrys,’ Gideon seethed, stepping closer until their boots touched. I could see the wariness in his eyes, the concern. ‘Answer me.’
‘Later,’ I cut in, making the brothers ease apart with the command that had no weight in it. Gideon turned his glower on me but the stone around my neck fluttered in panic, barely giving me time to prepare.
‘Katherine,’ came the breathless worried words of Master Hale behind me.
I turned, either out of habit or surprise, but any other emotions were stuttered as his pale sickly fingers curled around my wrist too quickly. ‘What are—’
I looked at his familiar grubby navy robes, wiry beard and sallow skin with those deep laugh lines etched into it.
Liar.A dark voice hissed, reminding me of the path that had led me here. Led me to my own death, a sharp phantom pain slicing into my neck where the mark of that bite remained. My breath caught and as if he could hear it, I felt Emrys’s magic rise in response.
