Page 103 of Ashes of Gold
She…?
Me?
“To find the spell,” he says. “Reaching the Ancestors, we agree, is the priority.”
“Yes, if only your fellow Beerchi saw it that way. She will complete the spell here, yes?”
That matter-of-fact tone. Is that…?
I lean for a better view. Jhamal is leaning back on the edge of a table. I grit my teeth, anger coursing through me. He’s the last person I wanted to see. Kai is in front of him, turning a blade in her hands. Her armor is in a clump on the ground. The thin robe she’s wearing is dark green and sheer in parts. She’s much less chiseled without her armor, soft around the edges even. And very, very beautiful.
“Yes,” he says, pacing the room. “She will come back soon. I’m sure of it. You haven’t told me why the spell is so important to you. It seems personal.”
“The Chancellor is coming. We need to be ready. That is all. Shaun is also still a problem.” She tosses her dagger and it lands in the table Jhamal’s leaning on less than a finger space from his hand and I gasp. He doesn’t even flinch.
Kai darts a glance in my direction. I hide behind the door, holding my lungs full of air. Julius’s eyes are saucers, but he doesn’t move either.
For a moment, nothing. Then her voice cuts the silence.
“I will do it tonight.” She plucks her dagger from the wall, brushing Jhamal as she passes… on purpose. “Once he’s taken care of, the Beerchi will fall in line, come around to our side of things.”
Our side?
“Youwillbe crowned, relax.”
Jhamal is doing all this for her… not the Chancellor?
“But, let me handle Shaun,” Jhamal says.
“You will kill him, yes?”
“Yes, but it needs to look like an accident. I want to get Bati released from that cell first, too.”
I can hear the eye roll in her voice. “It’s hardly a cell. It’s practically a library. Doesn’t he love to read?” She laughs as her fingers play on Jhamal’s chest. He doesn’t pull away, and though it shouldn’t after seeing what he’s done, something inside me twitches with heat.
“My point is that assassination will only flame the fire.” He folds his arms. “Shaun declaring himself King was a mistake, I agree. But we must not be hasty.”
“Hekilledmy Doile!”
I swallow a gasp. The blood. Aboveground. I clamp a hand over my mouth.
“He is a monster!” Kai pushes Jhamal against the wall with her body. He lets her and I bite down.
Footsteps echo down the corridor and my heart jumps. My head says keep moving, find Shaun, ignore them. For now. Raising the Ancestors is the priority. But the returned memory is a stoked fire and seeing him has doused it in gasoline.
I rush at the door and whip it open.
“Rue,” Julius says, but it’s too late. The sting of Jhamal’s betrayal and now this catches fire and I burn. I burn all over. I burn in the parts of me I’d buried.
Kai gasps. She’s shifted to Jhamal’s bed, legs curled one over the other, her robe hanging off one shoulder. Jhamal’s beside her, his shirt wide open.
“Jelani,” Jhamal says, moving away from her. “Wh-what are you doing here? I-I mean, when did you get back?” He reaches for me, but I step back.
“It’s not how it looks.” Jhamal swallows, stepping toward me. Julius steps forward too.
“You think that’s why I’m here?” I huff a laugh. “I shouldn’t be surprised. Add it to the list.”
“Clearly.” Kai pulls her shift into place, and something inside me snaps. Magic streams from my fingertips and slams into Jhamal’s chest. He flies backward, pinned against the wall. I hold him there; my magic, strands of burning white light, claw at the edge of his throat.
