Page 16 of Kingdom of Ashes & Bone
I didn’t like that. I wanted anger. I wanted violence. I wanted him to fight me, and make his argument. Instead, he picked up the dagger, and advanced toward me.
“Where’s Shava?” I asked, nervousness creeping into my veins.
“Out,” he grit. “She’ll be sad to hear about you, but she’s used to friends dying. Go back to your little castle and your dragons, and forget about us.”
We stalked around each other in a circle like two wary predators. How had it all gone south so badly? I didn’t miss how we’d turned so that I was facing the tunnel leading back up the surface, and his back was to the massive wall that led to the demons. He was pushing me out. He didn’t actually want to fight me. That gave me hope.
Which meant maybe I could beat him. But not yet. I had to at least try to get him to see reason, first.
“Zephyr, I’m trying to help. You said we could work together. This isn’t working together.”
His eyes narrowed. “Working together, yes. Trying to lead a revolt? I don’t think so. My entire life people have tried to take what was mine. I won’t let some stupid mud girl do it now!”
My jaw dropped at the insult. Perhaps he was more like his half-brothers than I’d thought.
A child cried somewhere not far from me, reminding me of my purpose. Zephyr’s motivations were blurring.
“You don’t want to help anyone other than yourself,” I accused him, wondering how he’d react, and beginning to suspect something. Zephyr lived down here like a little king among the poor and sick, but did little to end anyone’s actual suffering or break the curse.
What did Shava see in him?
Slowly I backed away, not entirely convinced he’d just let me go back up to the palace.
“The only reason I don’t throw you into the demon pit is because Shava is fond of you, and it’s tedious to deal with her tears.” Zephyr gestured with his knife to the tunnel behind me. “You have sixty seconds to get out of my sight. I even left the door open for you. One. Two—”
Angry tears filled my eyes but it would be stupid to fight him in his domain. It would be stupid to upset the women and children. I’d learned long ago in the mud quarter there was no honor or pride when it came to winning a fight. Running away was usually the best choice. You wouldn’t be able to run for food or water the next day if you got yourself beat up, after all.
I just wondered why Shava had forgotten the same lessons.
With Zephyr’s taunts in my ear, I turned and ran, past the moans of the shifting Nobles, and headlong into the tunnel as the rush of water roared around me. I didn’t know water could be so loud until Shava had first brought me here. That was likely the reason I didn’t know the demon was behind me until it wrapped a hand around my ankle and brought me down.
“AH!”
I twisted around on my back and kicked blindly. The face of the Noble who’d begged me to kill him minutes ago moved toward me in a jerky panic, his blonde hair the last remnants of his human self that hung on. His eyes were hungry and glazed, and it was clear he didn’t have control over himself.
A sob left my throat as I landed a kick directly into that confused, ravaged face, and he fell to the side toward the dark river. The demon roared in anger and panic as his fingers desperately dug for purchase in the stones, fingernails cracking and bleeding as the river worked to sweep the lower half of his body away in the current.
Zephyr stalked toward us and paused as he glared at the demon hanging on, judgment in his eyes. That pissed me off the most.
“Fucking end it then!” I screamed at him, flat on my back and bleeding from my ankle where the demon had scratched at me.
Zephyr ignored me and continued to watch the demon struggle to fight against the raging current. An odd, fascinated gleam shone from his eyes as he stood inches away but did nothing, the demon scrabbling and biting to survive, but quickly losing his grip.
With one last shriek, the water took him, and he disappeared under the white rapids without a sound.
Something was wrong with the way Zephyr had watched him die—in a calculated, clinical way. I scrambled to my feet as he snapped his head around to me next, and at that moment, I had no idea if he’d still let me go or throw me into the water, too.
Zephyr wasn’t who I thought he was. It had been a lie. Whether or not it was projected by him, or made up by my own desperate mind, it wasn’t true. It hurt to realize I was wrong yet again. Would I always misjudge so badly?
Who was he?
I wasn’t going to stick around to find out.
Blindly, I ran down the tunnel, trying to stay as close to the middle as I could in the darkness. When the sound of rushing water finally faded and the incline went up, up, up, I still didn’t relax.
I did not relax even when I burst out of the entrance and saw glimmering stars in the sky, and not when the same rope I’d used to escape my room still hung from the rock, dangling in front of me like a cruel joke.
I wrapped the fabric around my wrist.
