Page 110 of Daughter Of The Ninth Line
Standing, I spun to face the threat. He was beautiful, and I fuckinghatedit. He’d killed someone I loved, and I’d make him so ugly, he’d regret the day he was born.
“No!” I screamed at him. Wind started to swirl around him, around us both, and he stood there, eyes wide and full lips parted. The wordRecreationistspun in my brain, over and over and over again.
This wasn’t right. This couldn’t have been the plan. I refused to accept it.
Light began to seep from the pores of my skin, burning through the space around us in the courtyard. “NO!” I screamed again, but the guy just stood there, awe on his face.
“You’re real,” he breathed. “It’s really you.”
I didn’t know what that meant. I didn’t care. Because there wouldn’t—couldn’t—be a world without Vox. The streaks of light, the burning wind, they all pressed close to me.
The guy in front of me grinned. “I’ll see you in the next life, Ninth Daughter of the Ninth Line.”
The burning fires that surrounded me exploded outwards, demolishing everything in its path, until there was nothing.
No lifeless body of the man I loved.
No beautiful killer.
No Avalon Halhed, Recreationist.
chapter sixty-six
Avalon
the first day of the revolution
“Well,well. If it isn’t Avalon Halhed, the one and only love of my life.” Hayle kissed me as he picked me up and spun me around. “Your sword skills are getting so much better,” he murmured as he buried his face in my neck.
I snorted, because there was no way. “Liar.” I hugged him back. “Careful, I’m still holding my sword. Though I have to admit, it’s a novelty that I’m pokingyouwith something long and hard for once.”
He chuckled. I loved his laugh. “The Librarian wants to see us. Says it’s of extreme importance. I have to go find Lucio to tell Shay that the other one has been requested also.”
I looked over to the corner of the training ring. I’d seen Lucio flirting with Acacia earlier, so maybe he knew where Shay was. Having to go around in a circle to speak to Vox hurt my heart. “I think I saw Lucio flirting wi?—”
Quarry cawed loudly, coming down to land on Hayle’s shoulder, and I could tell from the rigid line of Hayle’s shoulder that whatever news he carried was bad. Hayle was silent as heand his raven companion conversed, before he turned a pale face toward me.
“We’re under attack,” he said quietly, but almost as soon as he finished the words, a siren wailed.
“Boellium is under attack. Please return inside the walls.”
Who the hell would be attacking Boellium?
Braxus appeared at my side, and I buried my fingers in his comforting fur. People were yelling and rushing toward the atrium, and we got swept up in the crowd. Somehow, the Third Line conscripts who’d been in the training ring formed a circle around us, moving as one cohesive unit of animals and humans.
We’d barely stepped through the doors when we were swamped by people. It was madness inside the atrium, of a sort that I hadn’t seen since the day I’d arrived. People were panicking, while instructors were trying—and failing—to restore order.
I needed to find Vox. “Come on, we’ll see if we can spot Lucio or Shay,” Hayle yelled over the sound of people’s panic.
We hadn’t made it three steps when we were approached by the Librarian. “Heir Taeme!” she shouted, making her way toward us from ten feet away. Hayle huffed, his anxiety to find and care for his people making him short on patience. When she finally made it to the space in front of us, her cheeks were pink, and she too looked annoyed. “Heir Taeme, I need you to come with me. It’s a matter of urgency.”
“I’m sorry, Librarian, but we’re under siege. I haven’t had time to find Vox?—”
“Don’t worry about that.” She hustled us back toward the door. “Quick, we must hurry, or this will end badly. At least, that’s what the book says.”
What book?
I must have asked the question out loud, because the Librarian gripped my arm and was now tugging me to the atrium door. Braxus stepped between us and gave a warning growl.
