Page 44 of Of Blood and Fire
“You destroyed any relationship when you hatched your plans to deceive my uncle and claim Esan’s throne for your own. As for our defenses, you know nothing of Esan or the heart of the people who guard her. We will not fall. Damon, Bryn, outside. Now.”
He spun on his heel and walked out. My gaze returned to Damon. He hadn’t moved, but his turmoil surged through me, the battle to keep squeezing his father’s throat until he took his last breath warring with his need to respect his oath. With an abrupt curse, he released him and pushed back, his face set and his blue eyes gleaming a bloody hue in the shadows.
Aric didn’t move, but his neck bore deep red marks from Damon’s grip. He would be bruised in the morning. Of course, I would have preferred he be bloodied as well, but I couldn’t have everything.
“You will pay for this treachery,” Aric repeated, his voice cold and flat. Dangerously so. “You will not live to find yourhappiness, no matter what this war brings. I will feel the warmth of your blood on my hands and watch the life leach from your eyes, even if it is the very last thing I do.”
“And itwillbe the last thing you do,” Damon growled. “King or not, father or not, Iwillkill you?—”
“Then do so now, because if you release me, Iwillcome for you. No matter how long it takes, no matter what I have to do, you will die at my hands. On this, I swear.”
Damon took half a step forward, his fists clenched and murder in his eyes. Then he swore, spun on his heel, and strode toward me. My gaze went past him and met Aric’s. There was something very unsettling—almost manic—in those blue depths. He didn’t say a word, but he didn’t have to.
After he killed Damon, he was coming for me.
Fire burned at my fingertips, and I wanted—sowanted—to unleash the fury, scatter his ashes to the winds, and pray that Vahree kept his soul for eternity.
But Garran was king now, and he’d ordered us out. I had no choice but to obey.
Unless, of course, Aric attacked me or mine.
Damon touched my elbow and lightly guided me out the door. Once we were through, it was closed and bolted from the outside. Esan’s people were the only ones now standing guard in the corridor, but footsteps and voices echoed up from the floor below. Garran hadn’t mucked about when it came to removing Aric’s people.
He waited at the far end of the hall, studying my approach with more than a touch of frustration. “Trouble continues to snap at your heels, I see.”
“Because I presented it a challenge, obviously, by refusing to give in to its taunts.”
He snorted and held out a hand to Damon. “We haven’t been formally introduced. Garran Asli, heir apparent to Esan’s throne.”
Damon clasped his hand. “Damon Tor, Aric’s bastard son and blood mage.”
“I take it you weren’t a willing participant in this web of deception?”
“This web? No, but I am not without some?—”
The sudden sounding of the siren drowned out the rest of his words.
Esan was under attack.
CHAPTER
SEVEN
Garran sworeand broke into a run, all but flying down the stairs. Damon and I were close behind. The siren cut out without issuing the third long blast that would have indicated all soldiers to the walls, but that wasn’t much of a relief.Anyattack was dangerous when our walls hadn’t yet been fully protected against the acidic shit and whatever in Vahree’s name those spheres were that had destroyed the war room.
Thenewwar room was a hive of activity, the reports coming in from multiple quill tablets being shouted across the room to the men and women manning the various troop movement tables. Neera stood at the largest, which showed a relief map of both Esan and Mareritten, a picture of calm contemplation in the controlled chaos that surrounded her.
She glanced around as we approached and snapped to attention. “The Mareritt have come out from under their fog and are attacking the lower section of the outer wall, but so far, the mages’ changes to the stone have withstood it. That won’t happen if they wise up and start hitting the upper untreated sections.”
Garran stopped beside her and studied the map. It showed two companies of Mareritt gathered beyond the Slit, which reallywasn’t much of an increase on what had already been encamped there. Their current position placed them beyond our attacking reach, though not beyond that of the drakkons.
Happy to burn, Kaia commented.
You don’t say, I replied, amused.
“They’re moving trebuchets into position here,” Neera added, stabbing at the map, “but as yet have not deployed.”
“Any sign of the spheres they used to destroy the war room?” I asked.
