Page 47 of Tales of a Deadly Devotion
Thean’s master – the Countess.
Of course, because if the Council fell to ruin, Elysior would be vulnerable once more.
‘Are you angry at me for not telling you, or that you couldn’t sense it yourself,my lord?’ Thean inclined their head, but I could see the concern buried in those amber eyes, dulling them. ‘That you’ve allowed yourself to become second to a monster?’
Second. Serus was the first son of the Old Gods. Varin … Montagor was the second.
The other few names that had survived record: Acarus, Duar, Than and Orus. Then Serus’ shadow – his sister in the tales.Acara. Queen of the Damned, seer of the night.
My knees almost buckled, the pain at my ribs tightening my chest. The house groaned, movement on the bookshelves behind me as if the books themselves wished to flee the room as the bitter cold bite of Emrys’s power rose. Dark shadows moving between his fingers like blades.
‘As much as I commend it, Emrys … killing the voyav doesn’t help us.’ Gideon moved between them. Hands resting on his hips, the golden fingers of his right catching the firelight, speckled with the red of my blood. ‘We should ward the house and—’
‘Someone tell me what on earth is happening?’ Alma snapped, hands clawed as if anticipating a threat. The hurt in her expression and the depth of her confusion were plain as her eyes found my own once more.
I’d never felt further from her, too far from what I was supposed to be.
‘Montagor attacked the Council,’ Gideon answered.
‘Bloody saints!’ William clutched his horns, mouth agape since he had entered the room, apron still on and speckled with flour.
‘I assume they’re dead then,’ Thean offered with the barest interest. ‘Or claimed.’
Claimed. Turned into the demonic creatures they’d worshipped when they followed the King.
Emrys gave the barest of nods as a shocked curse slipped from William’s lips but it was all background noise as my eyes met Alma’s and I saw the panic and the weight of her heartbreak. Saw it in the shadow of scales at her jaw.
‘Master Hale?’ she asked so softly and all I could feel was the blood between my fingers.
Kayin.My father’s name on Hale’s lips. The truth of it. All this time he’d known.
I didn’t mean to tell them.He knew. He told them. He made my father leave. Let me carry this guilt in my heart. Let it burrow into my very bones. He knew all my secrets and how ruthlessly he wielded them against me.
Told me to forget Daunton. Told me its victims were best left to rest in the past. As if this pain in me would only make them suffer more.
Liar.He was a liar – and how easily I’d devoured those lies. I turned away from it, the horrid hissing inside my skull as I pressed my fingers to my temples, desperate for it to stop.
Tauria.You did not listen.The voice clawed at my mind. I shook my head, tears running down my cheeks. It was like something inside me was ripped in half. Shattered so easily.
Only for Alma’s hands to take hold of my face, stilling me. The familiar rough scrape of the scales forming at her palms.
‘He lied.’ The sob clawed its way up my throat. ‘He knew. All this time he knew and he lied.’
All I could see was the red smoke in the orb before him. Of the things I’d done, how little it was all worth, when fey had died anyway. Died for nothing.
‘I don’t—’ Alma shook her head, looking to Emrys for any help before those eyes came back to me.
‘I trusted him with you,’ I wept. It was a raw animalistic sound from my lips. I trusted him with Alma. With the only fragments of myself I had left. ‘He knew.’
Daunton. What he did. What he would do. Those girls’ faces flashed into my vision like pages flipping in a book. Small and bony. Desperate and weak. I could hear them, screaming endlessly. The taste of smoke filled my mouth, coating my tongue.
Then all I could smell was the bitterness of saint smoke. The blood and bruises on Alma’s flesh. Could feel nothing but the damp coldness of the night mist, of the bodies beneath wet soil.
‘He knew.’ My magic rose, sensing my panic as a threat, biting painfully at my bones. I saw Alma’s eyes widen as she felt it, as she snatched her hands back from my face as if I’d seared her skin.
A scream was burning in my throat. The house gave a wary groan and Emrys called my name.
The stone around my neck fluttered like a panicked heartbeat. A horrid pained sound escaping my lips. Unable to bearit, I pulled at my hair, dust and grit beneath my fingertips. I heard the hearth roar in answer and I couldn’t stop it. Couldn’t survive the fury of my magic.
