Page 108 of Knightfall
“Won’t you join me?”
“I’ve a meeting to attend.” My mind flickered over Willard’s betrayal. The sooner I found out how Wyle’s spells could help me untangle Abbas’ truths and lies, the sooner I could strip Willard and his family of their titles.
Abbas stroked the inside of my wrist. “The crown is heavy isn’t it? I can lighten your burden, if you wish. As an engagement gift.”
What double speak. Does he mean take my crown? Or help me? I was mentally exhausted by trying to figure him out.
What’s he thinking?
He’s shuffling his thoughts again,Quinn ground out.Been shuffling this entire time.
I ground my lips into a tight smile. “That’s unnecessary.”
“I’m happy to do it.”
“It’s unnecessary because we aren’t engaged.”
Abbas’ let go of my hand and stroked his beard. He gave me an evaluating glance. “Oh, we will be.”
I reminded myself to breathe through my nose instead of letting out an angry huff. I had to appear calm and unaffected, though his arrogance rankled me.
Damn him. Abbas was so tempting, his eyes so delicious and full of naughty promises that I was flustered in spite of my brain screaming ‘caution.’
I turned on my heel and stomped up the many twisting stairs to Wyle’s tower.
Connor, Quinn, and Declan trailed behind me, recognizing my mood as explosive.
I smacked open the door to Wyle’s chamber. No knock. No pretense. I just shoved it open so hard it banged against the stone wall.
“Wyle!” I called.
I took one step into the room and stopped.
In the middle of the stone floor was a deep red puddle. Shards of bone and skin protruded from it. Blood spatter coated the walls, the worktables. Everything.
“What the hell?” Declan asked as he came up behind me.
“What happened to him?” Connor asked. “Blow himself up in one of his experiments?”
“I hope so,” I whispered.
I grabbed a yardstick and stuck it into the gooey puddle in the floor. The stick caught on something and I dragged up Wyle’s goggles. “It’s him.”
I stuck the stick in once more and stirred, hoping to find a beaker or some kind of evidence that Wyle had done this to himself.
What I found was a chain. I dragged the chain out of the puddle with my stick. I bent and wiped the chain on my dress. It was gold and interwoven with a blue material that glowed slightly.
“Does that look like elven chain?” I asked Declan.
He squatted next to me. “I’m not sure. Why?”
“Elven chain controls the wearer, doesn’t it?” I asked, using the stick to pick up the dripping, broken necklace.
“Yes.”
Connor piped up. “Cheryn supposedly stole elven chain from Sedara several months ago. One of those pirate attacks.”
“So this could mean Abbas …”
