Page 193 of Of Blood and Banes
“Me, too.”
Positioned three buildings down from mine are Cole’s temporary quarters. Wanting to check in on him, I take the two steps up to the door and stretch a fist forward to knock. The door is already parted open a few inches.
“Cole…?” I call out gently, and when he doesn’t answer, I edge the door open with my fingertips and peek inside. Hoping seeing him will settle my heart. Because maybe distracting myself with Darian all this time was foolish. Perhaps I should have closed myself off. Or accepted that since Cole is still technically engaged, I should just be alone.
Cole stares blankly at the wall adjacent to me, his eyes blank and distant. Even when I tap against the inside of the door to announce my arrival, he’s frozen.
“Cole?” I close the door behind me gently.
He clenches a paper in his right hand, his arm trembling slightly. I tip-toe over to him and toss glances at the wall he’s fixated on, finding nothing but a standard pattern of worn rocks. Resting a hand on his shoulder, I tilt my head to the side to try and catch his eye. His skin is pale, with his stare round and flickering back and forth as if he’s reading something on the wall.
“Hey, tell me what’s wrong?” I whisper, squeezing his broad shoulder.
“Read it,” he mutters, then offers me the letter.
I take it slowly, watching his face all the while for some sort of hint. He dips his head and then walks over to the window,leaning up against the wall next to it on his forearm as he stares outside.
The letter has a broken red seal on the back. But rather than the ancient symbol of Arterias with a dragon perched on top of the A, it’s plain.
King Aaric.
“Why do you have a letter from King Aaric? How did he even get a letter here—” My voice dies off when I open the letter, and my eyes scan the first line.
Cole Ashbourne,
Report to Arterias at once. I will be holding your sisters as ransom until you appear, and if you do not show in three weeks’ time, I will kill them one by one. Starting with the youngest.
I gasp, glancing over to Cole who hangs his head in anguish, his eyes squeezed shut as he shakes his head. I scan the rest of the page.
Bring the ring, and come alone. Try anything, and I’ll kill them without hesitation and destroy all of Padmoor in your name.
— King Aaric
I clench my gloved hand tighter around the paper, and as I open my mouth to vocalize my disbelief about its authenticity, I whisper, “Where did you get this?”
“It was slipped under my door this morning.”
Just when we thought we removed any spies in Nightfort. What if we were wrong about Nolan being the only traitor? Whatif he isn’t the only one on this side of the border working for the King?
I toss the letter onto his desk. “It has to be a trap.”
He shakes his head, pounding a fist into the wall. “Fuck…I mean, maybe? But I’m not willing to risk their lives by calling a bluff.”
Arabella.The King will kill her first. How could he threaten such a thing, when he lost his own daughter who was only a few years younger than her?
Seeing Cole’s expression, him struggling with splitting pain crushes me with guilt. I tear my glove off my left hand and touch the ring. “He doesn’t know you’re not the one wearing the Blood Ring…” I murmur, sliding it up and down my finger. It snags on my knuckle as if refusing to leave. I’ve been pulling too much magic, tipping dangerously close to being sealed. Forever. “We have to review this with the rest of the group. Have a meeting and see what can be done?—”
“There is nothing that can be done, Kat.” He turns to me, tears lining his eyes. “I have to go.”
The tension from my ring slips, and the metal band slides up off my finger. But I can’t take my eyes off Cole. “No! He’s luring you, and there has to be some way around it?—”
“I don’t care. He can dangle them in front of me, and I will come running. Every. Single. Time.” He pushes off the wall, grabs his cloak, and secures it around himself before slinging an already packed rucksack over his shoulder. He glances at the Blood Ring, now off my finger. “Put that back on.”
I slip the ring back onto my finger with a swiftness that may convince him to stay. “Then give yourself a chance to think this through for a second.”
“Unless you can somehow kill him before he kills them, there is no way around it.” He gently shoulders past me for the door.
I whip, snatching the back of his shirt so he’ll listen to me. “You can’t. He willkillyou, Cole!”
